Daniel Farke hopes Leeds United will see Patrick Bamford's Championship pedigree sooner than planned

The striker has not appeared this season after a hamstring injury in pre-season and has not had a regular run of games since the start of the previous campaign, when he won his only England cap.

But the 30-year-old is a proven Championship performer – until scoring 17 Premier League goals in 2020-21 he was typecast as only being able to deliver at that level – and as such will be welcomed back into a Leeds side who have scored 10 goals in three of their last five games, drawing blanks in the others.

Bamford is back in training and manager Farke has hinted he could even feature in Saturday’s fan-unfriendly kick-off at Southampton.

"There is this old rule that normally a player who is back in training needs as long on the training pitch (as he has been out) to be ready with full confidence and full rhythm to be ready to play," he said.

"Patrick is an experienced player and for an offensive player sometimes it is a bit quicker so hopefully he doesn’t need eight weeks to be back in the mix.

"Sometimes also an injured player is highly-motivated to be involved on the pitch and I can see this in training. Patrick is in a good mood and he knows he’s really a good player at this level.

"The last time he played at Championship level he got this club (16) goals and promotion so it’s definitely good to have a player of his experience and quality and ability back into the mix.

"We are not just here to help Patrick, it's more the other way around.

"It’s always a good feeling as a player when you look around see Bamford next to you. He didn't win the cap for England in the lottery. He's had a difficult spell due to injuries, (but) he was excellent in pre-season.

"We are all happy he is back but he will need a while to be back to his best.”

Leeds will be without Willy Gnonto, who had successful ankle ligament surgery this week, but Joe Rodon returns from suspension.

Junior Firpo is not expected back until after October's international break and Djed Spence is still out.