Revealed: Leeds United man suffered “freak accident” at Thorp Arch leading to lengthy absence

Leeds United head of medicine Rob Price has revealed that Djed Spence’s knee injury was caused by a slip in training in which a teammate landed on him.

Leeds’ luck when it comes to injuries has been woeful in the past few years, very rarely being blessed with a full strength squad in the league.

Daniel Farke is finding himself on the receiving end of these frustrating setbacks, but not to the extent of previous managers.

When is Djed Spence back?

It was revealed by Farke that Djed Spence would be out for a prolonged period following a knee injury sustained after the September international break.

Spence made his debut for the club off the bench in the 0-0 draw against Sheffield Wednesday and showed promise, but is now forced to wait until mid-November for his next appearance.

Rob Price shares how it happened

The manner in which Spence has suffered the injury isn’t ideal, proving to be nothing more than a “freak accident” according to Rob Price, Leeds’ head of medicine.

He spoke on the Official Leeds United podcast about the incident at Thorp Arch:

“Djed was really unfortunate. Last week, he’s gone into a challenge in training, his foot slipped from underneath him and he’s ruptured the lateral ligament of his knee.

“His foot slipped and it slips as he’s in a challenge, someone falls on his leg and pushes him into a level where the ligament can’t tolerate it, so it snaps, but what I would say about him, as with all the players, is already his attitude to doing what’s right and to making sure he’s going to be okay has been first class.”

In terms of rehabilitation from this setback, Price had this to say:

“We’ll build him up over the next few weeks. We hope he lies in that 90 per cent who get there within the eight weeks.

“If he doesn’t, there’s things we can do beyond that, but there’s certainly nothing extra you’d do at this stage when he’s got a good chance of being back in with us some time in November.”

This just about sums us up that this sort of injury is what has caused one of our best players to be out for two months at least.

What is encouraging is that Price seems confident that the initial timescale for his return is still in sight and we will have him back for a crucial run in November.

From the moment Spence is back up to speed, we have to be starting him in the Championship, because he’ll take our already frightening attack to another level.