Speaking at Thursday’s press conference, Daniel Farke reported that Leeds United have no fresh injury concerns for their hosting of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
- READ MORE: Press conferences for Double Gameweek 33
“All the players who were available for the Man Utd game are also – at least, today – ready for this game.” – Daniel Farke
However, Farke didn’t quite rule out the currently injured trio of Anton Stach (ankle), Joe Rodon (ankle) and Daniel James (adductor).
Last week, Farke said he was “realistically” expecting Stach and Rodon to be out until May, with any return sooner than that a “bonus”.
But here, he was a bit more ambiguous.
“The first step is more or less that they would be back in team training. Then, if they have a bit of team training, they are also available for the games. As is stands, today, no one is back in team training yet, but we have two more days. Sometimes there could be a negative surprise, sometimes a positive surprise. Let’s see what happens, we assess them day by day.” – Daniel Farke on Joe Rodon, Anton Stach and Daniel James
Noah Okafor, Gabriel Gudmundsson and Jaka Bijol, all flagged ahead of Gameweek 32, came through the trip to Old Trafford unscathed.
“No, all good. No problem.” – Daniel Farke on whether Gabriel Gudmundsson came through his comeback game unscathed
Away from team news, a bit of (prompted) praise for Noah Okafor and Jaka Bijol, not that you’d expect Farke to say anything overly negative about the pair.
“He’s really good in taking players on but it’s one of his strengths, definitely, to finish [goals] in these moments. We encourage him and show him the triggers when to be there in these moments but we also want to see the other side of his game, and we are really happy with how he’s performing at the moment. Also, his work against the ball and his ability to score goals. I think this is, for the player in his position, quite remarkable. But he’s also invited to assist even more with this situation. So, to be a bit more effective and add a few more assists to his name.
“We want to see the whole package and there’s even more to come from Noah, and it’s important also for him to stay hungry and not like to think after such a game with two goals, ‘Okay, right now, I’ve reached the top level and everything is easy’. He needs to stay humble and get his head down and keep working because there’s still lots to improve also in his game.” – Daniel Farke on Noah Okafor
“He has this natural aura to be a leader of men, and also like in difficult moments, because yeah, when the sun is shining individually, then everyone can be a leader and everyone can be in a good mood, but the real character is always shown when the sun is perhaps not shining or it’s a bit more of a difficult situation individually. I think how he handles this situation is, for me, second to none, and this is why he’s a big leader for me and a very important player, a key player. He was always a key player, even in the situations when he sometimes had to wait or was injured.
“We are all happy that we have Jaka but also with him, first season in English football, still room for improvement, but he’s on a really good path.” – Daniel Farke on Jaka Bijol


