Leeds United team news as injury list starts to ease
Daniel Farke said Leeds United have had an easier week at Thorp Arch, but they are not expecting a more straight-forward weekend at the end of it.
The Whites went to Sunderland last week with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Noah Okafor and Anton Stach all having had limited time on the training ground because of injury. Calvert-Lwin started, but the other two were restricted to the bench in the 0-0 draw.
Centre-back Nico Elvedi was ruled out of the gam at short notice with illness.
Th injuries are starting to clear up, but whereas then they were facing the bottom side in the Premier League, Saturday's hosts Bournemouth are perhaps the division's in-form tam.
"Nico is way better, he's back in training, also available for this game," reported Farke. "It was a good training week for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Noah Okafor, they had a normal training week. It seems if nothing happens they are also fully available.
"Anton Stach is struggling still a bit with his foot injury, so let's see. I hope it will get better in the next 48 hours.
"And also some good news with Joe Rodon, yesterday (Wednesday) he was part-integrated back in team training for the first time, so right now he just needs session after session after being out for so long, but way a better situation than it was last week.
"It's been possible to work on our processes way more than was possible last week. In addition to that we had also the storm last week where the ball was more in the air than really on the floor, so it was not the nicest piece of football."
Bournemouth's season has taken off after a slow start, bating AC Milan and Manchester United 3-0 last week, then doing it again versus Aston Villa in the last 16 of the League Cup.
"We know we face an in-form Bournemouth side and we expect a tough game," acknowledged Fark.
"At the moment thy are probably the most in-form team that you can face at Premier League level.
"Thy have an amazing record in the last five games – five clean sheets and scored many goals (14).
"They have really good players, also they are used to their processes, so they are not dissimilar to what they have done in the last season.
"They are used to playing with each other.
"They play with a good rhythm and full of confidence with a good spirit.
"It is a very intense side and a very honest group and you always see big unity on the pitch, but this is also some of our strength and we want to be there with a good performance.
"We are also a good side and we travel also with belief in ourselves."