Leeds United: Illness in Elland Road camp adds to the pressure on team

Hockaday said “at least half a dozen” players felt the effects of a bug as a one-sided first-half set Brighton up for a 2-0 win at Elland Road.

The illness is United’s only major concern ahead of tomorrow’s visit to Watford, though Hockaday admitted that Leeds were carrying “knocks and niggles” after four games in the first 11 days of the season.

“I don’t like saying it but we’ve had a viral bug going around,” Hockaday said.

“To be fair to the players on Tuesday, at least half a dozen of them were struggling with it. It was a messy place in the dressing room afterwards. It wasn’t very nice.

“We’ll see how everyone is for tomorrow but there are going to be knocks and niggles because we’ve had four games in two weeks. We need to be careful.

“There are lots of players in our squad but with all due respect, we don’t have a lot of experience on the bench. We need to juggle our squad.”

Souleymane Doukara, Aidan White and Lewis Walters, pictured, will all be absent at Watford through injury.