"Potential to unlock" - Ethan Ampadu sends warning to Leeds United's promotion rivals | OneFootball

The midfielder thinks that we haven't seen the best version of this United side yet.

Ethan Ampadu has sent a message of warning to Leeds United's promotion rival, stating that there is more to come from his side.

Leeds have suffered a number of fitness setbacks this season which have highlighted some of the questions that were raised about the club's summer recruitment at the time.

Daniel Farke is a bit short of options in wide areas, both defensively and in forward positions, and his central midfield resources took a big hit in September when both Ampadu and Ilia Gruev suffered knee injuries that ruled them out until the new year.

Summer signings Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell have stepped in admirably and done a fantastic job in their absence. After those two, though, there really isn't much to go to.

These players will be back though. There was a positive update on Ampadu's return status when Farke said, two weeks ago, that the Welshman may be ahead of schedule. In the week afterwards, the captain admitted that his recovery was going well but didn't lay out any specific timeline for when he'd be back to full fitness.

Once he is, along with the other injured players at Thorp Arch, the rest of the Championship will have a very strong team to deal with.

Ethan Ampadu's warning to promotion rivals

Ampadu has sent a caution to the other teams that Leeds will be battling for promotion this season. He believes that they have "more potential to unlock." Leeds are currently third in the table, two points behind Sunderland and Sheffield United.

The Welsh international certainly feels that it's been a good start to the season for the team, but he understands that they need to deliver after just falling short last time out.

"When you are sitting in third you can say it's positive which has been the case," Ampadu told the Yorkshire Evening Post.

"But we also know that we have got more to give, we have got more potential to unlock which I think is very, really exciting for us now. But it's all good and well talking about it, for us it's about going out and doing it on the pitch."

Leeds will be a force to be reckoned with once they get close to full fitness

A schedule like the clubs in the Championship have makes it hard for any team to be fully fit at any point of the season. There's always going to be issues here and there that have to be managed, and those that require the player to take time away from playing in order to recover.

That said, if Leeds can get the likes of Ampadu, Gruev, Largie Ramazani and Max Wober back to full fitness, they will be a really tough team for the likes of Sunderland and the Blades to contend with.

Thankfully, for them, the performances of Tanaka, Rothwell and others mean that there's not as much pressure on United to rush these players back to full fitness because they can trust their stand-ins to do the jobs required. It'll be some luxury to have when they have to leave the current midfield pairing, or the one returning from injury, on the bench.