Leeds United v Manchester City: Jesse Marsch on why Kalvin Phillips can always be sure of a warm welcome at Elland Road

The Manchester City midfielder's first return to boyhood club Leeds United, where he was idolised by supporters, has been dominated by a very public missive delivered by his manager.

The 27-year-old, who moved across the Pennines in a £42m deal in the summer, was left out of City's first competitive post-World Cup game against Liverpool due to returning from the competition "overweight" and "not in the right condition to train”, according to the Spaniard.

To say his time at the Etihad had not gone in the way he would have envisaged or wanted thus far is putting things mildly.

The England international has yet to start a game for City and has made just four substitute appearances with a shoulder injury early on hardly helping his cause.

Given recent events, his Elland Road homegoing is likely to be restricted to a watching brief. It is unlikely to stop him receiving a warm welcome should he be spotted among City's entourage.

Speaking ahead of United’s return to Premier League action after a 46-day break, head coach Jesse Marsch said: "Kalvin was such a good player, but for me he was a really likeable, heart-warming person to have around the team.

"He got along with everybody here, with the older players as well was the younger players, with me as well as the academy coaches. He just had a way of when he walked around this building, he made everybody feel at home.

"If you were to ask me what was the hardest part of replacing Kalvin, it was a little bit of that – making sure that we still had the feeling of what Leeds United is, what it means to be from Leeds, what the history of the club means and that human element of what we are that we still stayed strong with that.

"That is why in the last transfer window, we looked at the quality of people and character that we brought in here as much as what we thought of from their playing perspective. And I think we’ve replaced that with really good people."

Wednesday night is not the first time that Phillips has returned to Leeds since his departure.

He watched United's home game with Fulham in late October. Elland Road will always be dear to him and recent events might just have accentuated that depth of feeling if anything.

Marsch continued: "We still miss Kalvin. He came for one of our matches, Fulham, and you could see he felt the pain of losing that match with us after the match.

"He was still here and he missed being here - of course he misses being here, he misses the guys, he’s got a lot of great friends, this club is in his heart.

"Watching him from afar with the World Cup, the first thing I asked him was 'how is your shoulder and are you going to be ready for the World Cup' and he was like “yes, I think I’ll be ready and the rehab is going well”.

"He is just a really good person and a great player, I really enjoyed working with him in the short time I had."