Why Daniel Farke thinks it is right Leeds United have allowed player to go on international duty in December

The winger has been named in Nestor Lorenzo’s squad for matches against Venezuela and Mexico.

The games fall outside of the official FIFA international windows, meaning Leeds would have been perfectly within their rights to refuse to allow Poveda, who is uncapped, to join up.

But manager Farke thinks it would have been the wrong thing to do, and that some interantional football for Poveda could help the Whites.

"Obviously you always want to have all your players available every game so I would have preferred we also had Ian but we always allow a player if he's called up to go to his national team," said Farke. "This is a special one because it's not the nornal call-up period.

"It's a great honour epecially for every player to represent his home country and especially for Ian, with his roots and his first call-up. We got the feeling that because he was desperate to go and it's a big chance to shine for his motherland and for that we decided to allow him to go.

"I would have prefered to have him avaialble for the next days, he returns back on the 18th, that's the plan.

"But we also thought he didn't have that many minutes in his last game and it could give him a big boost and we wanted to give him the opportunity and to get the benefit if he comes back full of confidence with a big boost.

"Imagine what would have happened if we didn't do this. He might have trained without motivation and disappointed and the sign it would send to him that we don't care about his wishes and his individual career.

"It's also the sign it would send to all the other lads in the squad that we are just selfish.

"I think it was the only solution to let him go and there's a big chance he comes back in a good mood.

"Let's say something strange happens with injuries we still have a chance to call him back."

Helping the decision is the good condition of the squad ahead of Saturday's early kick-off at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park. Joe Gelhardt, Sam Byram and Crysencio Summerville have all been managing knocks this week, but Farke says Luke Ayling is the only player he is concerned about.

"He had two proper days of training in the last couple of days but reported some light knee problems after training yesterday so we managed his load today," he said.

"I hope he's able to train with the team tomorrow to be available but this is, at the moment, I would say more or less the only concern."