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Joe Donnohue

Marcelo Bielsa provides new Leeds United injury list as duo given end-of-term break

Leeds United's penultimate match of the 2020/21 season takes place tomorrow evening on the south coast.

Southampton welcome Leeds United to St Mary's Stadium, in something of a hotly-anticipated dead rubber.

Saints will be able to count on a few thousand supporters in the ground for the first time in 2021, and Leeds will play in front of spectators for the first time since early December.

That is unlikely to divert Leeds United's attention from the task at hand, which will be finishing the season as strongly as possible.

Following yesterday's results, Leeds are now in pole position for a top half finish after defeats for Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Given that each Premier League place in the standings tends to be worth £2 million, the club will be hoping Marcelo Bielsa's men can finish as high as possible from a financial standpoint.

Bielsa did confirm that centre-back Robin Koch would be afforded a period of leave in order to recuperate from a small injury.

"The injury that he [Koch] has is not important and we didn't want to take the risk of him playing and making it worse.

"We anticipated his holidays in the same way we did for Klich.

"In this case he [Klich] wasn't injured, but we thought we could anticipate his holidays one week - and that's why we made that decision," Bielsa said.

There was temporary confusion over whether Koch had been provided a mid-season break in order to ensure he was available for selection for the German national team this summer, but Bielsa clarified the position.

"In no way did I mean to say that, I don't know whether he'll be called up to the German national team or not.

"What I did want to say is I anticipated one week of his holidays - it's not linked to whether he will be called up 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."

With regards to Pablo Hernandez - who supporters are desperate to see in the final two games of the season - Bielsa provided an update on the 36-year-old who missed out on making the matchday squad against Burnley.

"With relation to Pablo, we're going to see how he is in training."

On the whole, it was a hopeful but matter-of-fact injury update provided by Bielsa this morning.

Leeds United have non-consequential fixtures against Southampton and West Bromwich Albion to close out the 2020/21 season.

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