Leeds handed huge boost as Phil Hay reveals early team news, it's good news for Marsch - opinion

Leeds United have been handed a huge injury boost ahead of their Premier League meeting with Southampton on Saturday afternoon.

In a recent post on Twitter, The Athletic’s Phil Hay relayed Jesse Marsch’s pre-match comments concerning the fitness of his Leeds United squad ahead of the 3pm kick-off. The American revealed that, having not featured since the 2-2 draw with Brentford back on 5 December, Liam Cooper is finally available for selection once again.

However, Hay added that, with Kalvin Phillips also back in contention for the visit of Southampton, only one of the returning duo is likely to start at Elland Road, as Marsch believes that both would need to be substituted at some point if they were to be given the nod from the first whistle.

In his tweet, the journalist said: “Phillips and Cooper both in contention to start vs Southampton, although Marsch says he won’t start both of them because he’d almost certainly have to substitute them at some stage. Still to decide on exactly what he’ll do.”

When taking into account how short Leeds have been in the heart of their defence at times this season, it is abundantly clear just how good the news is for the Whites that Cooper is once again available for selection.

Indeed, with Diego Llorente, Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk also having missed Premier League fixtures due to knocks over the course of 2021/22, it is not difficult to understand why Leeds have conceded a league-high 67 goals this term, five more than bottom-of-the-table Norwich City.

Furthermore, considering just how impressive Cooper has been over his 15 league outings so far this season – making 1.9 interceptions, 2.1 tackles and 2.9 clearances and winning 6.4 duels per game, with his SofaScore match rating of