Leeds United were handed a fresh defensive blow as Robin Koch limped off injured nine minutes into their clash against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The German was named in the starting line-up to face the Blues but was clearly struggling in the opening exchanges before going down clutching his knee.
He was unable to continue which meant Diego Llorente was called on for his Leeds debut after nine minutes.
Koch's injury comes after he did not feature in a training video put out by the club on Friday amid reports that he not trained earlier in the week with an undisclosed problem.
That has meant Llorente, who himself has just recovered from a groin injury that has kept him out for two months, was quickly called upon by Marcelo Bielsa.
In Thursday's pre-match press conference, Bielsa had said that he ideally wanted Llorente to turn out for the under-23s before being thrust into first-team action.
"In relation to Llorente, he’s healthy," he said. "He’s in conditions to play. The ideal thing would be for him to play with the under-23s before he plays with the first team because it’s been a while since he’s played now. We will see, we hope we don’t have a situation where we have to accelerate his process into the team."
Leeds were leading 1-0 when Koch was replaced, thanks to a fourth-minute Patrick Bamford goal.
Bielsa will give an update on Koch's fitness in his post-match press conference.
