Marcelo Bielsa did not rule Rodrigo out for a long spell on the sidelines after his absence from Leeds United’s win at Manchester City on Saturday.
The Spain international was conspicuous by his absence from the matchday squad at Etihad Stadium despite Bielsa giving his squad a clean bill of health just 48 hours earlier.
The Whites head coach had acknowledged his squad was fit at that point in the pre-match press conference, but intimated he could not predict what may happen between then and kick-off.
Rodrigo was the unfortunate victim of a problem in the final training session before the trip to Manchester, meaning Joe Gelhardt was called up.
However, Bielsa’s comments stopped short of ruling the forward out for several weeks.
“He had a problem in the last training session,” he said. “So he wasn't in conditions today to participate.”
Bielsa is expected to speak to the media again on Friday ahead of next Monday’s match with Liverpool.
Rodrigo’s new problem is the latest in a long line of issues he has had to deal with in a stop-start debut campaign in England.
The club’s record signing started all 10 matches between December 11 and January 31, but either side of that run it’s been a difficult season for Rodrigo.
After the standard integration period of the opening weeks, there was his Covid diagnosis and then a steady increase in minutes before that run of starts from mid-December.
However, since the groin injury at Leicester City, Rodrigo has appeared in just three of the 11 subsequent matches from the bench, encountering little niggles here and there along the way.
