AFC Bournemouth will have a keen eye on fresh Leeds United developments: View | OneFootball

Joe Rothwell may find regular minutes more forthcoming at Leeds United from here on in

Bournemouth are sure to be keeping a watchful eye on Leeds United's Joe Rothwell, who is sure to receive increased opportunities at Elland Road following injuries to both Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev.

Following the summer sales of Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter to the Premier League, Leeds welcomed significant funds into the club.

According to reports, Leeds received around £123 million from wholesale player departures across the summer, and they reinvested some of that into the permanent arrivals of Largie Ramazani, Isaac Schmidt, Ao Tanaka and Jayden Bogle.

However, Daniel Farke also elected to utilise the loan market and brought in two players from the top-flight in Rothwell and Manor Solomon.

In contrast to on-loan Tottenham Hotspur winger Solomon, who made a positive start to life in West Yorkshire before suffering a hamstring injury, Rothwell has accumulated years of experience at Championship level, predominantly with Blackburn Rovers.

The 29-year-old was deemed surplus to requirements at Bournemouth and spent the second-half of the previous season on loan at Southampton, who defeated Leeds in May's Championship play-off final, before returning to the second-tier to sign on with Leeds for the 2024/25 campaign.

Leeds United suffer Ethan Ampadu, Ilia Gruev injury blows

Ampadu and Gruev had formed an indispensable double-pivot in Farke's side at the start of the season, with both players starting each game prior to suffering respective injury setbacks.

Indeed, Whites captain Ampadu played more minutes across the Championship than any other outfield player last season and naturally takes some displacing in the side, although there will be a license for both Rothwell and Tanaka to force their way into the reckoning now.

Leeds were dealt a significant blow when Ampadu went down during the first-half of their 3-0 victory over Coventry City on the weekend, with supporters having feared the worst. Farke was ultimately the bearer of bad news when he confirmed ahead of Leeds' midweek clash with Norwich City that the Wales international will be sidelined for a minimum of ten weeks with a knee ligament injury.

"It's difficult to predict how long he will be out but it's realistic to speak about 10 weeks until he can return to team training," Farke said.

"It could be a few days more or less depending on the rehab. At the moment we expect him to be back in training at some point in December but he will need a bit of team training before he's available.

"We expect him to be back [playing] at some point in January."

The timescale of Gruev's recovery is not as clear for the time being, with the Bulgarian having also limped off during the first-half - this time in Leeds' 1-1 draw away at Norwich City on Tuesday evening. Farke is still waiting for further assessment, although Leeds are sweating over his injury, and it could well leave them even more short-staffed in the midfield engine room.

"We are still waiting for further assessment," Farke explained in his press conference ahead of Friday evening's trip to league leaders Sunderland.

"He will have a scan later today and I can tell you more maybe this evening. As it stands, it looks a bit better today, doesn’t feel that bad but we have to wait for the scan."

Bournemouth will have an eye on Joe Rothwell at Leeds United

The double injury blow which Leeds are currently facing will surely afford more opportunities to Rothwell, who has found match minutes difficult to come by so far.

Prior to yesterday's trip to Carrow Road, where he was introduced in place of Gruev after 20 minutes, Rothwell had only racked up 81 minutes of Championship action across seven matches, all of which came from the bench.

He did, however, make a positive impression after coming on for Gruev and showed that he is capable of manning the middle of the park in Farke's system.

Rothwell's performance should provide some positivity to Leeds, who will naturally be licking their wounds after such wretched luck on the injury front but have found yet another player who can step in and address their immediate midfield crisis.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, will certainly be monitoring the coming weeks and months with real intent. Now is the perfect opportunity for Rothwell to show his worth at Leeds and you would imagine that he will finally get a run of games to do exactly that.