Ethan Ampadu is hoping to hit 100% 'sooner rather than later' as he continues to put his knee injury in the past.

The Leeds captain suffered the injury during the 3-0 home win against Coventry City in September. Ampadu returned to the matchday squad at the start of December.

He has since appeared in the last five games, which has seen the Whites win four times and march to the top of the table. Ampadu has also completed the last three 90 minutes against Oxford United, Stoke City and the aforementioned Derby.

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The Welshman has spoken about how he hopes to be at full throttle very soon. "Hopefully sooner rather than later," Ampadu commented. "I'm working hard every day to make sure that I can be in tip-top condition. I'm okay.

"I give thanks to the physios and the staff for the rehab that I did. I feel quite good out there, but I know there's still a little bit of rust, so I'm just trying to shake that off."

Ampadu impressed during the victory at Pride Park and covered a lot of ground throughout the 90 minutes. The 24-year-old believed that Leeds showed 'very good composure' in their final game of 2024.

"It felt like a battle.," he said. "We're always confident whilst the game's going on that we're going to create chances and that we're hopefully going to put the ball in the back of the net and luckily we showed very good composure and Brenden slotted it away very nicely,"