Phillips suffers head injury on visit to nightclub

England midfielder Kalvin Phillips needed treatment for a head injury following a night out with his Leeds United team-mates ahead of the Christmas round of fixtures, it emerged yesterday.

Marcelo Bielsa had given his players the day off on Monday following their defeat by Tottenham Hotspur, and granted permission for an evening out for those who remained in London after the game.

The players were at Cirque Le Soir, a nightclub popular with Premier League footballers, when Phillips is thought to have caught his head on a wall, needing treatment for what was described by a source as a “graze that caused a cut”.

England’s player of the year for 2021 was assessed by a club doctor and passed fit to train as scheduled yesterday, making him available for Saturday’s visit to Brighton.

Bielsa always gives his players the Monday off after a Sunday game and the Leeds manager moved training back to midday yesterday to give the squad time to return.

With most clubs having six games or more during December, the traditional festive celebrations for players have proved difficult to arrange due to the hectic run of fixtures.

Phillips has been one of Bielsa’s most important players this season in his “Yorkshire Pirlo” role in front of the back four, only missing games last month when he picked up a calf injury. At Tottenham he played more of a sweeper role and was Leeds’s outstanding player as they took the lead before being clawed back by the hosts.

For England he was one of Gareth Southgate’s best players at the European Championship, featuring in every game on the run to the final.