Huge blow for Leeds United's Championship promotion rivals with season-ending injury 'likely'
Leeds United’s gap on the third-placed Clarets has been cut significantly.
Burnley could be without January signing Jonjo Shelvey for the rest of the season with Scott Parker detailing what could be a massive blow for Leeds United’s Championship promotion rivals.
Leeds suffered a significant blow of their own on Sunday after losing 1-0 at Portsmouth, with the result putting an end to their 17-game unbeaten league run in miserable fashion. Colby Bishop scored the decisive goal on the hour mark, taking advantage as Illan Meslier and Joe Rodon hesitated.
Promotion rivals Burnley had been without Shelvey for their last two victories over Cardiff City and Luton, the midfielder having picked up an injury during his side’s FA Cup defeat at Preston North End. He was taken off just before the hour mark but is thought to have suffered the issue much earlier.
Shelvey injury latest
It’s unclear exactly what type of injury Shelvey has but the Burnley Express reports he will ‘likely miss the rest of the season’, with Parker admitting it ‘doesn’t look good’ for the 33-year-old at present. His absence would be a big blow with 10 games of the campaign still to go.
“He's picked up an injury,” Parker told the Burnley Express of Shelvey on Saturday. “He picked up an injury coming out of Preston. I don't know the full, full extent yet. We're going to have to see, but it doesn't look good.”
Shelvey’s possible long-term absence is another blow for Burnley who have also been without Jordan Beyer, Aaron Ramsey and Mike Tresor for large parts, if not all, of the season. And the Clarets’ solid defensive unit has also been broken up in recent weeks with Bashir Humphreys out.
Humphreys update
The defender, who joined on loan from Chelsea in the summer, has been excellent this season but picked up a quad injury last month and has missed three games since. While it might not be a season-ending injury for Humphreys, the 21-year-old isn't yet close to a return.
“He'll be out for a little while at the moment,” the Burnley boss added of Humphreys. “Timescales, I'm not too sure about. But I think it's fair to say we won't be seeing Bash for a little while.
“We need to use our squad and rotate, we need to freshen things up in certain games. With a busy week coming out the back of Cardiff, now this game and then a game on Tuesday [vs West Brom] and another game at the weekend [vs Swansea City], it was something we needed to do.”
Burnley and Sheffield United both gained ground on Leeds with wins on Saturday, and defeat at Portsmouth for Farke’s side means the race for automatic promotion has become incredibly tight in the blink of an eye. Parker will have been glad to see his side return to keeping clean sheets but insisted all that mattered was the result.
“I'm delighted with everything,” Parker added of his side’s win. “First and foremost we've come here to try and get three points, that's where we are at this stage of the season with 11 games today to go, now 10. You obviously want three points, but I think we've got everything today, performance too, so I’m really pleased with everything.”