Leeds United's Gaetano Berardi is stretchered off the pitch at Charlton and now looks to be out for two months.
Whatever the result at Wolves tomorrow night Leeds United boss Steve Evans will be hoping his side have finally found some consistency under him after they followed up their fine win over Hull City with a decent display at Charlton.
Although the Whites had to settle for a point on their latest trip to London they created enough chances to bring back all three and in the second half certainly showed signs that progress was being made under their second head coach of the season.
Now the trick is to play at this level in every game as results, while still important in United’s position just above the relegation zone in the Sky Bet Championship, would then take care of themselves.
Next they travel to take on a Wolves side tipped as promotion contenders at the start of the season, but who find themselves only four places above Leeds ahead of the Thursday night Sky TV live game.
Kenny Jackett’s side have suffered following a double blow early in the season when they lost two of their top quality strikers – Nouha Dicko to a long term injury and Bakary Sako to Crystal Palace.
They still contain plenty of quality and have other dangerous strikers like Adam Le Fondre as well as one of the best wingers in the league in James Henry, but Evans will see it as another chance for three points that would see Leeds leapfrog their hosts in the table as they are just two points behind them.
United must, however, overcome a problem that has seen them win only twice so far against teams in the bottom half of the table.
Dropped points, like the ones at Charlton, could come back to haunt them at the end of the season and are the biggest reasons as to why the Whites are going to be in the bottom half themselves at the half-way point, which is reached in three games time.
Coming off the back of the Hull win it was hoped that Leeds would impose themselves on a struggling Charlton side without a permanent manager, but they did not match the intensity of their display a week earlier and it was not until the second half that they started creating the sort of chances that could win them the game.
Producing the kind of attacking football demanded by their head coach, several opportunities were fashioned with Tom Adeyemi, again given licence to bomb forward from midfield, missing the best of them when his delicate chip over Charlton keeper Stephen Henderson hit the post.
Adeyemi appears to be enjoying his new role in the team and is likely to keep his place for tomorrow’s game, but there could be changes elsewhere with Jordan Botaka pushing for a starting place after getting involved well as a sub at Charlton and Scott Wootton’s place at full-back under threat after he was taken off at The Valley. His replacement, Gaetano Berardi, was injured late on and is reckoned to be out for two months, so Evans has to decide whether Sam Byram should come back into the team.
Sol Bamba is expected to be fit for the game so could come back into the back four at the expense of either Giuseppe Bellusci or Liam Cooper.
Leeds are in action again on Sunday and will be aiming to avoid an unwanted hat-trick of defeats against former managers when they come up against Simon Grayson’s Preston at Elland Road.