Aston Villa lost 1-2 at home to West Ham United, however, of more interest to Kevin Blackwell and Leeds United will be the status of Eirik Bakke who lasted just 11 minutes of the game before being subbbed by Lee Hendrie.
Bakke was rested for Villa's last game, the third round FA Cup tie because no long term deal had been signed with Villa to take his loan period from Leeds past the end of January. Leeds were hoping that someone like Middlesborough might come in with a cash offer for Bakke and so were delaying the completion of a new loan deal.
It now seems that Leeds should have prevented the injury-prone Norwegian from playing at all! The injury, if serious, will only assist Villa, ironically, as no team will sign an injured Bakke during the January transfer window given his medical history. O'Leary may well have a clear field to decide whether or not to sign or return the injured Bakke to Leeds at the end of January.
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