Not ready Leeds United ace sits out international match as Whites teammate shines

A not ready Leeds United ace sat out a Sunday evening international as a Whites teammate excelled despite his side’s defeat.

Leeds winger Dan James and Whites captain Ethan Ampadu have been heavily involved in Wales’ opening Nations League games and Craig Bellamy’s side faced their final match of the current international break on Sunday evening with a home clash against Denmark.

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James, though, who had started his country’s last two Nations League games in the reverse fixture in Denmark and at home to Norway dropped to the bench for Sunday’s match, the winger replaced by Crystal Palace’s Brennan Johnson in the only change to the side.

James had been particularly impressive in the 2-1 win against Norway but boss Craig Bellamy revealed pre-match that the Leeds winger was not quite ready to start a second game in three days.

Bellamy said he still hoped to use James from the bench but the Leeds attacker was ultimately an unused substitute as the Dragons fell to a 1-0 defeat, a 75th-minute Rasmus Hojlund penalty proving the only goal of the game.

Speaking about James pre-match, Bellamy told Sgorio: “Dan, I would have loved to have (started him), but he wasn't quite ready to play again today.

"The short recovery, time was against him. But we still hopefully might be able to use him from the bench as well because his quality is so impressive for us.”

Despite the loss, Leeds captain Ampadu again impressed in centre-midfield, Wales Online handing him an 8/10 in their player ratings as the stand out man.

Wales Online wrote: ”So composed on the ball, and mopped up superbly on the edge of his own area. No player made more tackles on the night, and he also made a few interventions that broke up some promising Denmark moves.”

Leeds youngster Jayden Lienou also made the bench having been not involved in the current break’s three previous Nations League games.