Norwich City will be without one of their key players for both legs of the play-off semi-final with Leeds United.
The two sides will go head-to-head twice in just five days for a place at Wembley as Daniel Farke returns to face his old club once again, having completed a league double during the regular season.
Heading into the final day, it had looked as though Leeds and Norwich would be avoiding each other, with the latter sat fifth in the table.
However, Norwich were beaten 1-0 away at Birmingham City which saw them drop to sixth behind West Brom. Leeds, meanwhile were unable to complete a final day miracle by pipping Ipswich Town to second place.
Neither side are in particularly good form heading into the tie but after the way Leeds fell away in the race for top two, supporters aren’t too confident of their chances.
Ashley Barnes out of Leeds play-off semi-final
Both managers have a couple of injury issues to contend with heading into the fixture, with Farke having been without four players for the final day defeat to Southampton.
Pascal Struijk and Stuart Dallas have both already been ruled out for the season, while Dan James and Patrick Bamford have also missed the last two.
Farke is hopeful he will have James and Bamford available for the play-offs, but according to Norwich boss David Wagner, they will be without Ashley Barnes for both games.
Barnes picked up an injury in Norwich’s penultimate league match of the season against Swansea City, having to be replaced just 15 minutes after coming off the bench.
With 30 league starts, Barnes has been a regular at Norwich this season and has managed six goals and five assists, playing in a position just off Josh Sargent.
Norwich losing Barnes physicality could help Leeds
Norwich have plenty of players in reserve who can fill the void left by Barnes. Gabriel Sara is the likely to contender to move into that number 10 position, with the Brazilian often playing deeper when Barnes is in the side.
Sara is undoubtedly one of the best players in the Championship and alongside Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Adam Armstrong, is one of just three to register double figures for goals and assists.
He is certainly someone Leeds will have to be extremely wary of, but on the other hand, the loss of Barnes’ physicality could help the Whites.
Leeds know all to well the abrupt nature of Barnes’ style of play from his time at Burnley and given Farke’s side’s current weakness from crosses and corners, it may be a relief he’s not playing.
Leeds conceded twice from set-pieces against a QPR side who were one of the worst teams in the league at scoring from such situations. Both of Southampton’s goals also came from crosses.