Full-strength Leeds United squad available to Steve Evans

Head coach Steve Evans also has a full-strength squad to choose from for the first time this year as they head to Blackburn Rovers five points behind 10th-placed Preston North End and with a game in hand.

Victories over bottom club Bolton Wanderers and at Cardiff City – Leeds’ first victory there since 1984 – have put the coach and his players in buoyant mood for the trip.

Evans has Chris Wood, Liam Cooper and Lewis Coyle pencilled in for Ewood Park.

Evans claimed a long coach journey to Wales would not have been “conducive for putting him out there” but striker Wood’s extended absence with a hamstring strain is finally set to end this weekend.

Cooper was also missing on Tuesday with a hamstring problem but Evans expects the centre-back to be back.

Right-back Coyle has also recovered quickly from the tackle which saw him stretchered from the field against Bolton Wanderers last weekend.

Evans, whose squad have 11 games left this season, has dealt with constant injury concerns in his four months as head coach, but second-choice goalkeeper Ross Turnbull – out for rest of the term with an ankle problem – could be his only absentee at Blackburn. Evans said: “I’d expect Cooper to train. Lewie Coyle is on schedule to train, too, and Chris Wood will be with the group on Thursday.

“We maybe have a chance to have most of our players available. Any coach will tell you that you need your big-game players.”

Leeds’ joint top scorer Wood has played only twice since the end of December and last appeared in a 1-1 draw at Brentford in January.