Leeds United: Graham Smyth drops major blow for Diego Llorente and Spain | OneFootball

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Football FanCast

·10 June 2021

Leeds United: Graham Smyth drops major blow for Diego Llorente and Spain

Article image:Leeds United: Graham Smyth drops major blow for Diego Llorente and Spain

The Yorkshire Evening Post’s Graham Smyth has revealed that Leeds United defender Diego Llorente has been forced to leave the Spain squad ahead of the upcoming EUROs.

What’s the story?

The centre-back was named by Luis Enrique as part of his Spain contingent for the EUROs, giving Marcelo Bielsa’s side another player to feature in the tournament this summer.


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Article image:Leeds United: Graham Smyth drops major blow for Diego Llorente and Spain

But, writing via his official Twitter account, Smyth revealed the “desperately disappointing” news about Llorente, and the fact he has had to leave the Spain squad due to returning a positive test.

Fans will be gutted

After seeing him establish himself as a cornerstone of Bielsa’s side towards the closing stages of the Premier League season – he started 13 of the last 14 games they played – Leeds fans would surely have loved to have seen Llorente in action this summer.

The centre-back arrived only last summer, and after a tough early period at Elland Road which saw his first-half of the season blighted by injury, returned to nail down a place at the heart of the defence.

With only eight caps to his name, the EUROs would have been Llorente’s first taste of international tournament action, and a real chance for him to show Enrique and the rest of Europe the kind of quality he possesses.

Leeds fans will equally be gutted at seeing him miss out, and will also be wary of the kind of physical consequences a positive test can have – you only have to look at the likes of Allan Saint-Maximin at Newcastle to see how much impact it can have on a player.

They’ll be hoping everything pans out well very quickly.

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