Patrick Bamford will lead Leeds’ attack against Derby after apologising to Marcelo Bielsa and his team-mates for his two-match ban for playacting.
Bamford is available for the play-off semi-final second leg having served his suspension for pretending Aston Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi struck him to get him sent off.
Leeds skipper Liam Cooper has revealed that Bamford said sorry to the players and coaching staff for his shameful behaviour.
They accepted his apology and Cooper says the striker has been working harder than ever in training to make it up to them.
“He came straight in and apologised to me and the boys for what happened, and the staff,” said the defender.
Marcelo Bielsa's message to Leeds players ahead of play-off semi return with Derby
“It’s one of those things. In the heat of the moment sometimes you make stupid decisions and Pat will admit that.
“But he’ll tell you that in these last 10 days when he’s been suspended, he’s certainly trained a lot harder than he would if he was playing.”
Bamford has struggled at times during his debut campaign with Leeds and did not score his first Championship goal until mid-December.
The former Chelsea forward was even abused by some Leeds fans because of his erratic form before scoring twice at Preston last month.
He now has 10 goals and Cooper says he has the confidence to keep going when he misses chances.
Bamford will spearhead Leeds’ attack in the absence of injured top scorer Kemar Roofe and Cooper said: “There’re no worries about Pat being fit and we all know what Pat can do.
Leeds dealt huge blow ahead of Championship play-off clash against Derby
“He’s got this unbelievable confidence about him where if he misses chances he always knows he’s going to score. It’s a weird confidence, but a good one to have in the team. We all take from that as well.”
Leeds are favourites to reach the play-off final at Wembley because they take a 1-0 lead into the semi-final return at Elland Road on Wednesday, but Cooper refuses to think like that.
Leeds have lost five times at Elland Road this season, including against Birmingham, Hull and Wigan, and Cooper claims they can take nothing for granted.
The centre-half says Leeds must go out with the mindset that they have to beat Derby to ensure there is no drop-off in their performance levels.
“I don’t like to ever be over-confident,” he said. “As soon as you start being like that it can affect the way you perform and your mentality.
“We’re not a team who can let anything affect our mentality going into games. We’ve got to be all at it and if we’re not, we find it hard.”
