Leeds United hopeful Joe Gelhardt will be fit to face Watford

The striker's dead leg was the latest in a series of problems which have held him back since Marsch took over.

"He hasn't trained every day this week but we think he will train tomorrow (Friday) and we think he'll be available for the match on the weekend," explained Marsch.

"Then how we use him and what the situation is for him, we'll evaluate as we go.

"He's been so unfortunate because it was a back problem, then a false covid.

"We can always second-guess ourselves and should we play them in the under-23s but players need game practice, they need time on the pitch. They need to be able to put our new philosophy of football into practice on a gameday so it was really important for us to play for the under-23s this week and it was really unfortunate he picked up an injury."

On other injuries, he added: "No real updates other than Tyler (Roberts), Junior (Firpo) and Patrick (Bamford) are all making good progress and Jamie Shackleton is almost ready to train, but not quite. I think everyone else is available and ready to go."