Leeds United hope Patrick Bamford will face Brentford in crunch Premier League relegation match

The Whites have to take more points at Brentford than Burnley do at home to Newcastle United or they will be relegated to the Championship, so to have their talismanic centre-forward available at some point would be a huge boost.

Bamford has not played since rupturing his plantar fascia at Wolverhampton Wanderers in March, but is back in training.

"Patrick Bamford has looked really good this week," said Jesse coach Marsch. "We still haven't made a final decision on exactly where he'll stand for Sunday.

"He had a day off today inside to recuperate but we're hopeful we can make the decision in the next few days that we can make him available for minutes on Sunday."

Asked what decisions were still to be made on Bamford, Marsch said: "More than anything it's that we're not risking him at any level," he said. "At the moment I don't believe we would be, and then we'll just have one more meeting with Patrick tomorrow to go through what it looks like, what the loads have been, how he feels and do a final assessment of is he available, how minutes, what's the best strategy?"

Leeds have no fresh injury concerns but Marsch also revealed that Luke Ayling, who is suspended, has undergone knee surgery which could delay the start of his 2022-23.

"Luke Ayling had successful surgery yesterday so we're hopeful it's been two and four months on a knee injury he had to get sorted out so we decided to take this time," said Marsch.