Leeds have suffered a triple blow to their promotion hopes.

Midfielder and captain Jonathan Douglas has been ruled out for at least three months with the knee injury he suffered at Walsall on Saturday.

Striker Mark De Vries, who has missed the last three games through illness, has now injured his groin and will be out for a month.

And central defender Rui Marques will be unavailable for several weeks after Christmas as he has been called up by Angola.

Marques, whose consistency has been a feature of United's season, is wanted to join his country's squad on December 28 for a friendly and they need him to report again on January 5 for the African Nations Cup, so he could be away for over a month.

In addition, Portuguese winger Filipe Da Costa injured his hamstring playing for the reserves in midweek, ending his chances of going out on loan for the time being.

However, manager Dennis Wise is confident of bringing in reinforcements when the transfer window reopens at the start of the year.

One of his recruits will be Sebastian Sorsa, a 23-year-old Finnish winger who arrives from HJK Helsinki on a Bosman free transfer on January 1. Sorsa had a spell on trial at Barnsley earlier in the season.

Wise has also confirmed that he hopes to bring back Bolton central defender Lubomir Michalik, who impressed while on loan at Elland Road last season before the Slovakian international was recalled early by his club in April.

The news about Douglas is especially disappointing and Wise has not ruled out the possibility of recalling Shaun Derry from his loan spell at Crystal Palace if there is a run of injuries to midfield players in the near future.

On a brighter note, striker Tresor Kandol returns to partner top scorer Jermaine Beckford against Bristol Rovers at Elland Road on Saturday.

Kandol missed the 1-1 draw at Walsall through suspension and was badly missed. He scored one of the goals and Beckford netted the other two when United won 3-0 at Bristol in September.

Rovers had been flying high at the time but they have since sunk into the lower reaches of the table and Wise said: "They may sit back and try to sneak a point.

"There is no real pace in their team but they all work hard for each other and it will be up to us to break them down."

United will be defending an unbeaten home league record and winger David Prutton said: "It would be nice to remain unbeaten until the end of the season.

"That kind of thing is a bonus because the main thing is to be promoted."

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