Surgery blow confirmed for Leeds United's next Elland Road visitors as manager provides worrying update
Leeds United welcome Crystal Palace to Elland Road next weekend after their Premier League trip to Brentford on Sunday.
Leeds United’s next Elland Road visitors have suffered a major injury blow with Crystal Palace defender Daniel Munoz undergoing knee surgery.
Palace arrive at Elland Road for the final Premier League fixture before Christmas on Saturday December 21, a game initially scheduled for the Sunday but moved forward due to the away side’s Carabao Cup commitments the following week. The Eagles have three games to get through before that meeting and a demanding schedule is catching up with them.
Munoz missed his side’s 2-1 win at Fulham last weekend with a knee problem and has not travelled with the squad for Thursday’s Europa Conference League game against Shelbourne. Glasner has now confirmed the wing-back, who has three goals and two assists in 14 Premier League games, will be forced to miss Leeds after going under the knife.
“Dani Munoz has to undergo surgery, knee surgery and we will miss him for a few weeks,” Glasner said. “The prognosis is four to six weeks that he should be ready to play. But again, when you have to undergo surgery, you never know. I had a few in my career, so that's why we are always a little bit cautious. But it doesn't look so serious.”
Palace currently have just 15 senior players available and a packed schedule has seen them look visibly fatigued in recent games. Glasner's side have already played 24 matches across all competitions, a significant increase in Leeds’ total of 16 due to their participation in Europe and progression to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
Ismaila Sarr is out with an ankle injury and will miss next weekend’s trip to West Yorkshire before heading off to AFCON to represent Senegal. Top goalscorer Jean-Phillipe Mateta is also set to miss Palace’s midweek game against Shelbourne but is expected to return in time to face Leeds at Elland Road.
Crystal Palace team news ahead of Leeds United trip next weekend
“JP [Mateta] also needs to rest,” Glasner added. “He came back with a minor injury from the French national team – we had to manage his knee the whole time. There was always a little bit of swelling and he just didn't feel well. So, he stayed at home.
“We hope he can be available for the weekend. But I also hoped that Dani just missed a couple of days. The plan is that JP returns to training on Friday and then he should be available. Now we are missing JP, the striker, we're missing Ismaila [Sarr], the 10, and we're missing Dani Munoz.
“The whole right attacking side, we are missing. But we showed, because Dani and Ismaila didn't play at Fulham as well, we showed that we can create chances, that we can score goals. So it's maybe the bill we are paying right now for the amount of games we are playing.”
Leeds will be without midfielder Sean Longstaff and winger Dan James for next weekend’s game against Palace, with the pair expected to be out until January with calf and hamstring tendon issues respectively. Recent data published by Sky Sports revealed Daniel Farke’s squad have suffered the most injuries of all Premier League teams so far this season.