Leeds United could be without winger Daniel James and defender Joe Rodon for Saturday's Premier League clash with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Daniel Farke's side sit fifth in the table, three points behind the champions, but James is out with a back injury picked up while representing Wales during the international break. Rodon, his national teammate, will also miss the trip as he continues his rehabilitation from a recent layoff.
Farke confirms James and Rodon absences
"Joe (Rodon) is on his way back in his rehab making good progress," Farke said. "He has already had individual sessions on the pitch but it will be a bit until he is back in team training."
"Also, Daniel James will miss the Arsenal game, so he is out with a back injury. He came back with this back injury, more or less, from his national team and for that he is not available for this game."
Summer signing Harry Wilson returned to training this week after a muscle injury, but Farke says a late decision will be made on his fitness. "Also some good news with Harry Wilson after his muscle injury – he is back in team training since Tuesday. Again, we also have to wait right now how his body reacts but there is also a chance for him to be available going into this game."
Leeds seek to avoid repeat of last season's thrashing
Leeds have started the new campaign in impressive form but were beaten 5-0 in the same fixture last season, with Viktor Gyokeres scoring twice that afternoon. Former Leeds defender Matt Kilgallon believes Farke's side would prefer to face the Swede rather than Kai Havertz.
"For me, the only team that ever made Leeds United looked like a newly promoted team, throughout the entirety of last season; it was Arsenal," Kilgallon told Metro. "Even though Gyokeres scored two of those five goals in the same fixture last season, from my point of view as a centre-half, I would still rather his name on the team sheet than Havertz, 100%."
"Havertz is an absolute handful, and has a bit of everything about him. It's not just him individually, but I think that Arsenal also play better as a team and a collective when he plays, just because of his link up play and he has the ability to hold the ball up, to lay it off to runners and bring everyone else around him into play. I just don't see that as much in Gyokeres if I'm totally honest – it's just not his game."
Arsenal host Leeds having been thrashed away to Brighton in their last Premier League outing before the international break.
