Marcelo Bielsa gives insight on predicted return dates for injured Leeds duo

Marcelo Bielsa has admitted that Leeds United pair Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips are unlikely to return from injury in early March, as had initially been hoped.

The Whites have had a season to forget in the Premier League, getting dragged further into the relegation mire by the week.

However, injuries to key players have been a problem throughout the campaign, with the likes of Cooper, Phillips and Patrick Bamford all missing big chunks of action.

The hope was that the first two would be returning in the coming weeks, but a fresh update has now emerged which suggests that the Elland Road faithful shouldn’t hold their breath.

Speaking in his pre-Tottenham press conference on Friday [via Yorkshire Evening Post], Bielsa admitted that Cooper and Phillips will not be back in action in early March, despite that being mooted as a possible return date.

The 66-year-old stated: “There’s no fixed date [for their return]. The prediction that they will be available early March, how they are right now, doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the case.”

This is a massive setback for Leeds, who have such an important run of fixtures coming up, having not won in the league since mid-January and now sitting just three points clear of 18th-placed Burnley with two more games played than the Clarets.

Cooper and Phillips have been such integral figures for the Whites down the years and were among their best players upon their impressive Premier League return last season (as was Bamford), so to be missing that entire spine of the team for so long is dreadfully bad luck.

It means that Bielsa’s men will need to keep plugging away without three of their most important players – Bamford’s return is even further away than the other two – in what is