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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Tom Coleman

The Leeds United star ready to reignite his career, keep a £20m star benched and make a late push for Euro 2020 with Wales

There's a fair number of strikers putting their hands up to be a part of Ryan Giggs' plans for the upcoming European Championships.

Christian Doidge, Tom Bradshaw, and even Hal Robson-Kanu have found themselves in eye-catching form for their respective clubs this season, while you can't rule out the likes of Ben Woodburn making a late surge for inclusion.

It leaves Giggs with a big decision to make, the cliched 'nice problem to have' that so many managers crave.

Judging by last weekend, it's a selection conundrum that could soon be compounded.

Injury has restricted Leeds United striker Tyler Roberts to just 13 appearances this season, and you have to go back to November for his last competitive start.

After spending the last three weeks out of first-team action, Roberts netted twice in three minutes to hand United a convincing 4-0 win over Yorkshire rivals Hull City.

It was a timely return for the former West Brom man, who after enduring injury struggles last season admits he now feels ready to make a positive impact for Marcelo Bielsa's side.

He told the Yorkshire Evening Post after his two goals: "I have been focused on getting my body right and some little things just haven’t gone my way unfortunately but that’s what’s happened and it’s just nice to get back.

"I felt sharp, I felt fit and I have done in training for the last few weeks so I am just looking to build off this performance especially and just kick on now and get the team over the line."

At the moment, promotion is clearly the main objective for the Welshman, whose brace has helped the Whites send out a message to their rivals as they bid for a return to the Premier League after a 14-year absence.

“Premier League football, to bring it back to Leeds United would be an amazing achievement," he told Leeds Live.

"We all know that but we're all still very calm about it. I think it's an exciting few months. It's not nervous, it's not scary, it's just exciting to be able to be a part of it and try and bring back Premier League football to Leeds."

Despite the 21-year-old sitting out such a significant chunk of the season, it's clear he is a big part of Bielsa's plans.

Not only is he seemingly ahead of RB Leipzig loanee Jean-Kevin Augustin at the moment, a player believed to have a £20m price tag on his head, but there's even a suggestion that he could well help to dislodge first-choice striker Patrick Bamford, who's so far found the net twice in this calender year.

Bielsa himself has said as much. When asked whether Roberts could move to the top of the pecking order, he said: "Clearly it is an option. Tyler can play in this position.

"Normally we always have two players to fight for one position. He can be an option for Patrick and he also can be an option for Klich or Pablo as playmaker.

"When one striker scores, of course that has a high value and after that, the manager considers this."

Roberts' confidence is surely sky high at the moment, and if he can build on his promising showing at the KCOM Stadium, there's no reason why can't spearhead his side's promotion push.

Nevertheless, Wales and Euro 2020 is clearly never far from his mind.

"Yeah, of course," he added. "Euros is exciting so I'm going to be trying to get in that squad and hopefully get some minutes out there in the Euros."

Roberts has so far played six times for his country, if he can keep finding the net for Leeds, he may well need to dig out his passport once again.

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