Leeds United news: Jesse Marsch will be ‘livid’ after Kalvin Phillips update – expert
Alex McLeish has insisted Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch will be “livid” after Kalvin Phillips picked up an injury playing for England.
The former Scotland manager, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, suggested players were at risk of “overloading” playing internationals so shortly after the end of the season.
As quoted by BBC Radio Leeds’ Adam Pope (7 June), Gareth Southgate confirmed Phillips, 26, suffered a “severe dead leg” in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Germany.
The midfielder went off after just 14 minutes in Munich.
McLeish admitted he wonders how more players have not suffered from the demands of playing for club and country.
“I think there has been an overload on the players over the last year,” McLeish told Football Insider’s Russell Edge.
“The pandemic had something to do with that but the amount of games and the demands on them nowadays…
“Okay, they’re training to different levels. The sport science enables them to recover quickly and there are more modern ways, nutrition, etcetera.
“I’ve said in the past, you fear for many of the players that are all-out action players. You wonder how they don’t get more injuries sometimes.
“We’ve spoken about Leeds and Patrick Bamford. The overloads that guy had was something that, I felt, needed to be looked at. The club managers will be livid about all these international games, believe me.
“They know the players love to play for their countries but the managers will be concerned. They’d rather keep them here.”
Phillips missed much of the 2021/22 season due to a serious hamstring injury.
He managed to make 20 Premier League appearances and played every minute of the club’s final six games.
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