Leeds United’s manager admits “fatigue,” dealing a severe injury blow to the team’s promotion rivals.

As of right now, Southampton trails Leeds United by five points in the race for Premier League promotion.
Russell Martin, the Southampton manager, will assess Kyle Walker-Peters’ condition in advance of the matchup with Birmingham City this coming weekend. On Wednesday night, Leeds United’s opponents for promotion were playing in the FA Cup fifth round. They were defeated 3-0 by a youthful Liverpool team.

Walker-Peters’ injury forced him off the field in the 75th minute, adding to the cost of the loss. The full-back, a vital member of St. Mary’s’ squad this year, entered the match as a substitute in the 58th minute and replaced James Bree, but he was unable to finish and needs to be rated.

Martin is hoping his England international gets cleared to play because the Saints are five points behind Leeds and will be desperate to snap their three-game losing streak in all competitions.
After the game, Martin reportedly said, “He has felt something,” according to the Daily Echo. “We’ll need to evaluate it and determine our next course of action. It was an odd one because no one had anticipated his coming off. Hopefully, it is not too serious, but it is frustrating nonetheless. In the next day or two, we will have some additional information.”

On Wednesday night, Southampton gave Liverpool a tough time at points before giving up two late goals to lose 3-0. Martin attributes that to tiredness because the Saints have been playing a lot of games lately, but he was persuaded by his team’s performance that they can overcome the opposition in the 12 games left to play for the championship.

Martin responded, “I would put it down to energy,” when questioned about the late collapse. “We were a little worn out. Kyle had to leave after we made some substitutions.”

“If you can do that here, you can do it anywhere,” he continued. It will be an exciting way to finish the season if we can maintain that intensity and care for the last three quarters of the football game, which I have probably been unhappy with for six months.

“The players’ main goal is to make it to the Premier League and visit locations like this one each week. After that, they can demonstrate their skills by playing football. They’ll be able to approach the Premier League differently than they have in the past.

“We won’t change, so hopefully they had enough fun at Anfield tonight to make them want to come back for more.”