ROBIN Koch and Mateusz Klich will not feature again for Leeds this season after head coach Marcelo Bielsa revealed the pair have been granted early leave to boost their hopes of being involved in the European Championship.
Marcelo Bielsa said: “Koch has been given early leave with the potential for him to be called up or not called up to the German national team. I don’t know whether he’s going to be called up to the German national team or not. It’s just that he has a small niggle and we didn’t want to run the risk of a small niggle being aggravated into something bigger. The injury that he has is not important and we didn’t want to take the risk of him playing and making it worse so we anticipated his holidays in the same way we did so for Klich. (Klich) is not injured. The evaluations that I make over the campaign are for the needs of each player and in the case of Klich, the decision I made was the most favourable one for him.”
Bielsa, who revealed Pablo Hernandez could return at St Mary’s, saw his side collect their fifth win in their last eight matches, banishing any notion that their approach could result in burnout towards the end of the season. They are poised for a top-half finish in their first season back in the Premier League ahead of their penultimate game at Saints, whose results took a downward turn at the start of 2021 after a strong start to the campaign.
Marcelo Bielsa said: “(Saints) is a team who is in a different position in the table with regards to the performances they have had. They have a group of players who are very capable and they didn’t finish higher up in the table because they had a phase of nine or 10 games that was negative. But the level of the team is superior to the position they find themselves in the table.”
