{"id":411701,"date":"2025-09-09T23:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T23:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/411701\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T23:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T23:51:12","slug":"leeds-united-news-ilia-gruev-injury-update-farke-forced-for-fulham-re-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/411701\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds United News: Ilia Gruev injury update, Farke forced for Fulham re-think"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leeds United\u2019s<\/a> injury dilemma in midfield was dealt another frustrating blow with Ilia Gruev<\/a> revealed to have been played by his Bulgaria manager despite carrying an injury.<\/strong><\/p>\n

United\u2019s focus after the international break turns to a trip down to Fulham on Saturday afternoon, as Daniel Farke aims for his first away points of the season at Craven Cottage.<\/p>\n

It comes following four points from his opening three games back in the Premier League, where he earned a respectable point at home to Newcastle United despite missing two of his starting midfielders due to injury.<\/p>\n

Most Read on LeedsAllOver<\/p>\n

Ilia Gruev suffers international injury setback away from Leeds United<\/p>\n

Farke will have been hoping for his squad to return from international duty with a clean bill of health, but further headaches are forthcoming in midfield.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because he already had two international midfielders sitting out of this break after respective MCL issues for Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka<\/a>, and now Ilia Gruev could be recovering from a problem.<\/p>\n

Having started in a 3-0 defeat against Spain in World Cup qualifying<\/a>, Bulgaria head coach Ilian Iliev confirmed that he brought Gruev off the bench for 45 minutes against Georgia despite the fact he was carrying an injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ilia Gruev played 135 minutes for Bulgaria in the past week despite a confirmed injury problem. (REUTERS\/Irakli Gedenidze)<\/p>\n

\u201cGruev had problems, questionable whether to start or come in as a sub. He came in and coped, I hope there are no consequences from the fact that he played with problems,\u201d\u00a0Iliev said, per\u00a0Palms Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Daniel Farke faces triple headache ahead of Fulham clash, three Leeds United midfielders could miss out<\/p>\n

Farke\u2019s attention will be fixed on a trip down to Craven Cottage this weekend against Fulham, which will provide another stern test on the road against a side that have established themselves well since promotion back in 2022.<\/p>\n

The Cottagers are winless, but are a goal better off than Leeds\u2019 one so far, and Farke\u2019s United will require a strong performance to come away from Marco Silva\u2019s Fulham with anything.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Action Images via Reuters\/Craig Brough)<\/p>\n

Leeds and Farke\u2019s main issue is what to do with the midfield, now likely to have three midfielders that won\u2019t be at 100% \u2013 hopefully Ampadu and Tanaka\u2019s post-international break timescale has them back up to speed this week.<\/p>\n

Should he have none of these three available, it looks as though a change in formation might have to follow, reverting to a 4-2-3-1 with a pairing of Anton Stach and Sean Longstaff in front of the back four, potentially with Brenden Aaronson in front as the \u201910\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s less than ideal that Farke could be forced to change shape after plenty of work in pre-season on a 4-3-3 setup, but this weekend looks a case of needs must.<\/p>\n

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United\u2019s injury dilemma in midfield was dealt another frustrating blow with Ilia Gruev revealed to have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-411701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115177028676429857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}