Leeds United handed unexpected encouragement as frantic sprint to next deadline begins

While the international break is currently taking hold, it won't be long before Leeds United return to action and the frantic sprint to the start of a new year comes around. As winter arrives with its frosty bite, so Leeds boss Daniel Farke will know all too well the demands on his players are set to increase with 11 Championship matches to be played in a little over five weeks across a busy December and equally busy start to January and a new year.

It's a time when squad strengthen is underlined. And so it is with good timing Farke is currently observing at the club's training ground the return to the pitch of Largie Ramazani, while more good news has followed this week with club captain Ethan Ampadu declaring he is closing in on a return sooner than expected.

Ampadu has played less than half the club's 15 league games so far this season and has not been seen since sustaining a serious knee injury in the 3-0 home victory over Coventry City in October. An initial 10 week absence was expected, with all indications being the Welsh international would unlikely play again until 2025.

READ MORE: Why Leeds United have more to offer than Chelsea and Tottenham as transfer talk intensifies

READ MORE: Elland Road crowd 'spoiled' as boring Leeds United debate prompts strong response

That doesn't appear to now be the case. After Farke last week teased his captain was ahead of schedule, the player has given his own encouraging update, which stops short of naming a date but offers a suggestion the wait will not go on for much longer.

"It's going well. Recovery can have its ups and downs, but I feel like it's gone fairly well at the moment," Ampadu told the Yorkshire Evening Post. "There's a bit of time and a bit of healing that still needs to be left to be done but it's going well, I am happy about it, I am quite positive about it so the sooner obviously for me personally the better. But obviously when it's right.

"I hope (to be back playing) as soon as possible. But I don't want to rush it as well. I want to be playing, if I could, the Swansea game, but maybe it's not right for my knee to do that so I just have to wait and see. I don't really want to put a time schedule on it. As quick as possible, but when it's right."