Leeds United’s Jack Harrison itching to complete the job

The English leagues have been put on hold until April 30 to try to help stop the spread of covid-19, and it could be that tomorrow’s video conference with the Premier League and Football League pushes that date back further, or indefinitely. The Football League issued a statement yesterday stressing: “We are all committed to getting back to playing the game we love – but only when it is safe to do so.”

It means footballers are going through many of the same uncertainties others are.

Players are training individually at home and in keeping with most top clubs, Leeds have supplied theirs with fitness equipment. But they are trying to keep their fitness up without really being able to work on their sharpness on the ball, and not knowing when they will next need to peak.

The frustrations will be greater at Leeds than many clubs. When a halt was called in mid-March, they were top of the Championship, in pole position to secure a promotion that would be transformative both in terms of finances and football. After a difficult mid-season where they won just two of 12 games, they had enjoyed five straight victories without conceding a goal.

Harrison, whose form had not dipped when Leeds’ results did, was arguably their best player of that impressive sequence.

“It’s frustrating because not only myself but the team were in good form and with the results we were having and the way we were playing, we were in a good place,” said the 23-year-old winger, on a second season-long loan from Manchester City.

“It’s a bit frustrating to bring that to a halt because of everything that’s going on in the world right now.

“Personally, I would have liked to have had a few more goals before we stopped playing but it’s important to look ahead. There’s still nine games left and whenever we start again we have to be ready to start up again where we left off. That’s going to be important for us as a team.”

The Leeds players have strict training regimes to adhere to as they train at home and are expected to send data as well as photographs of their daily weigh-in, but with only those requiring treatment allowed into the Thorp Arch training complex, their only contact with team-mates comes via WhatsApp and other lines of communication.

With so much physical work to do, Harrison – who has five goals this season – echoed the words of team-mate Mateusz Klich in saying boredom is not a big issue for him, but he is longing to be able to play football once more.

“It’s been tough,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m someone who gets bored easily but I always like to have a ball at my feet and be playing football so when I’m injured or during these times it’s always hard because I just want to keep playing.

“But we’ve been getting programmes sent to us from the performance coach at the club to follow with running and stuff.”

While Harrison has put in some eye-catching performances, as have Ben White and Kalvin Phillips, midfielder Adam Forshaw has named the versatile Stuart Dallas as his player of the season.

“As someone who can go on and be the best, I would say Ben or Kalvin, but I would say Stuart Dallas at the moment would be my player of the year all day,” he told Colin Murray’s new 52 podcast.

“He will play anywhere on the pitch for you and he is a manager’s dream. He will run through a brick wall for you.

“He deserves this break and needs to be recognised for what he does. I call him the Championship’s James Milner. He’s absolutely fantastic.”

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