Marcelo Bielsa will plug Leeds United’s gaps from from within after Diego Llorente and Robin Koch injuries

On Saturday, Robin Koch suffered a knee injury against Chelsea which necessitated surgery expected to rule him out for three months. It forced fellow centre-back Diego Llorente into an ahead-of-schedule Leeds debut as substitute.

Now it has emerged Llorente suffered another muscle injury which will keep him out of tomorrow’s visit of West Ham United, matches against Newcastle United, Manchester United, and possibly Burnley and West Bromwich Albion.

“We won’t be able to count on him for at least two weeks but we’ll have to see how long it takes to cure this problem completely,” said Bielsa. “It could last longer but for the next two or three weeks we won’t have him.”

Llorente had a couple of muscle problems after joining from Real Sociedad in October. Before the Chelsea game Bielsa said he would prefer him to play for the under-23s before his Premier League debut but he said using Llorente as a ninth-minute substitute at Stamford Bridge was not a risk. Koch had been carrying a knee injury since his debut at Anfield in September.

“The risk I talked about was about his football fitness because he was recovered and not at risk of another injury,” he insisted. “If there’s any risk to the health of a player, I won’t play him. Llorente was completely healthy and in condition to play. In the case of Koch’s knee injury against Liverpool, we knew he would have to have a surgery at some point and he played 10 (Leeds) games without any problem, so much so he played three games in a row for his national team.

“Against Chelsea he had a collision with (Olivier) Giroud which caused him to come off.”

Bielsa greatly prizes versatility, and even without Koch and Llorente, feels he has enough central defensive options.

“Against Aston Villa, (Luke) Ayling played very well as a centre-back, and against Liverpool, Pascal (Struijk) played as a centre-back and played a very good game,” he pointed out. “In the Championship (Kalvin) Phillips also played as a centre-back and adapted to this role.

“We’re not thinking about bringing another centre-back into the team. We’re expecting to count on (Gaetano) Berardi from February.”

Berardi has been out since July with a serious knee injury.

Bielsa named his side for the West Ham game at his press conference although because of that versatility, it was not totally clear who will replace Koch. “It could be Ayling, it could be Phillips,” he said. “The XI is going to be Dallas, Ayling, Cooper, Alioski, Meslier, Phillips, Klich, Rodrigo, Raphinha, Bamford and Harrison.”

Dallas could play right-back to allow Ayling to play centrally, or central midfield so Phillips can drop back. If anything can be read into the order of the names, it points to the former.

Bielsa said of Koch: “The surgery went well. He is likely to be out for three months. It’s a shame to miss him for such a long period of time but it’s normal for injuries to happen over the course of a season.”

Pablo Hernandez and Jamie Shackleton are not yet match-fit.

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