Leeds United’s Mateusz Klich stays close to fans as waiting game continues

Mateusz Klich speaks for many of us when he says: “I’m just missing football.”

It is only 26 days since Leeds United last played, beating Huddersfield Town 2-0, but the coronavirus lockdown has made it feel like a lifetime.

Who knows when the next game will be? April 30 is pencilled in, but no one is pretending that is not very optimistic.

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At home in Yorkshire, Polish midfielder Klich is missing playing, missing Elland Road, and missing training at Thorp Arch – just not missing his team-mates!

BRING IT BACK: Leeds United's Mateusz Klich takes on Town's Slex Pritchard and Emile Smith Rowe.
 Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe.BRING IT BACK: Leeds United's Mateusz Klich takes on Town's Slex Pritchard and Emile Smith Rowe.
 Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe.
BRING IT BACK: Leeds United's Mateusz Klich takes on Town's Slex Pritchard and Emile Smith Rowe. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe.

Motivation to maintain the relentless running regimes and at-home gym work is getting tougher, but as someone anxious to win promotion properly – after a 46-game season, however or whenever that is completed – Klich has to do it.

Ask him how he is, and his yearning for football is quickly obvious as it is dragged into the conversation.

“I’m OK,” Klich tells journalists via Skype, “My family’s OK, I’m just missing football. I’d like to kick some balls!

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“I miss games, I miss the stadiums and I miss the training sessions as well. Running every day isn’t great.

KEEP IN TOUCH: Mateusz Klich is interacting with 
Leeds United fans via the live streaming service, Twitch.  Picture: Bruce RollinsonKEEP IN TOUCH: Mateusz Klich is interacting with 
Leeds United fans via the live streaming service, Twitch.  Picture: Bruce Rollinson
KEEP IN TOUCH: Mateusz Klich is interacting with Leeds United fans via the live streaming service, Twitch. Picture: Bruce Rollinson

“I love to play football so I just can’t wait to be on the pitch and especially in the stadium.

“I can’t see any football at the minute and it’s difficult. I don’t know how they’re going to solve it but it’s going to be very difficult. There are a lot of games to play and no one wants the season to be cancelled.”

Leeds’s fitness coaches are doing their best to keep sessions varied within the tight restrictions footballers have to stick to just like everyone else (yes, even you, Jack Grealish), but Klich scoffs at the idea it might be fun.

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“We have a first-team WhatsApp group and the fitness coach is sending us programmes every day,” he explains. “We’re sending our weights every morning so they know how we are training and what we are doing. We send reports after training too.

IN THE THICK OF IT: Leeds United's Mateusz Klich (centre) battles for the ball with Arsenal's Matteo Guendouzi (left) and Mesut Ozil. Picture: John Walton/PAIN THE THICK OF IT: Leeds United's Mateusz Klich (centre) battles for the ball with Arsenal's Matteo Guendouzi (left) and Mesut Ozil. Picture: John Walton/PA
IN THE THICK OF IT: Leeds United's Mateusz Klich (centre) battles for the ball with Arsenal's Matteo Guendouzi (left) and Mesut Ozil. Picture: John Walton/PA

“We run almost every day. Sometimes it’s sprint training, some are high-intensity, some are just distance runs, it depends on the training sessions. There’s no fun stuff but we’ve got the gym, we’ve got core work, we’ve got running.

“It’s getting harder and harder (to stay motivated).

“Everyone knows we have to be fit when everything is finished but no one knows how long it is going to take.

“We’re probably going to be fitter than anyone else after this break. I could play games very quickly, if you asked me. I just want to finish the season as soon as possible.”

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Klich thinks taking a break from his team-mates will do everyone good and is having no problems keeping himself occupied, despite dodging home-schooling his daughter.

The players have shown their compassion by taking wage deferrals to help less well-paid Elland Road employees to keep their jobs.

“I enjoy not having to see them every day!” laughs Klich when asked about his team-mates. “In a football team sometimes a break is good. But we have a WhatsApp group and we talk every day. Everyone is tired of runs every day!

“I can’t wait for the first day back training together again. If we pick up (injury) problems we’re allowed to go to Thorp Arch but if you don’t it’s better to stay home, don’t just go there for fun!

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“My little one wakes me up, (I have) breakfast, then I go for a run, then gym, the little one has a nap so I get some time for myself, then she wakes up, lunch, watching news, bath her, dinner, then hopefully she sleeps soon so I get more time for myself.

“A lot of players play Playstation and watch series. I can’t see, these days, how we can be bored with so many other things to do. I’m not.”

He is interacting with Leeds fans on video live streaming service Twitch.

“I wanted to try Twitch for a long time,” he says. “It seems like the perfect time and I’m just playing video games and trying to talk with the fans.

“A lot of Leeds fans are on my account.”

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Meanwhile, fellow midfielder Adam Forshaw has revealed he had further surgery on the hip injury which has ruined his 2019-20 last week, but is still on course to return in August.

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