Leeds United provide Kalvin Phillips, Liam Cooper, Jamie Shackleton and Charlie Cresswell return dates as injury situation elsewhere improves

During his press conference to preview Sunday's Premier League game at home to Burnley - which the Whites are optimistic they will not have to postpone - coach Marcelo Bielsa casually dropped in some information about when some of his longer-term absentees might return.

"We've been recovering players - even if Phillips and Cooper will return in March," he revealed.

"Even if Shackleton and Cresswell will come back at the end of January or the start of February, the number of players we have available has increased."

Phillips and Cooper both injured their hamstrings in December's game against Brentford. So did Patrick Bamford, but he is now back in training and it is simply a question of how much football he is match-fit to play.

Bielsa revealed that Junior Firpo, Dan James and Diego Llorente are available again after suspension, injury and Covid-19 respectively. Jack Harrison has also recovered from the knock he picked up in the opening minutes of Leeds's previous match, a 4-1 defeat at home to Arsenal.

Since then the Whites have suffered a Covid-19 outbreak which, combined with their injury problems, have left them unable to field a team against Liverpool and Aston Villa. Who contracted the virus and how they are recovering has not been made public but just over 48 hours before the game, Bielsa was confident that as things stood, he would be able to meet the Premier League threshold of 14 available senior players, including a goalkeeper.

"As things stand we think the game will go ahead because we think we're on the way to come back from the reasons those games are postponed," said Bielsa.

What condition Burnley will be in is unclear as he was speaking a matter of hours after they played Manchester United with a team heavily depleted by coronavirus. Leeds will be keen not to fall further behind in terms of games played and Burnley have played two fewer matches thanks to illness and snow.

Despite his shortening injury list, Bielsa has everything sufficiently in perspective to know this break cannot be viewed as a good thing, though.

"The illness of a group of players can never be considered as positive even if it generates alternative consquences that can be valued," he said. "What promotes it is sufficiently serious to not value it."