Gaetano Berardi had been a key part of Marcelo Bielsa’s first-team before injuries took their toll on the defender, and he has been forced to watch much of our season from the sidelines because of them.
He is now expected to be thrust back into the starting XI against Millwall, though, with Pontus Jansson nursing a knee injury – and unlikely to be passed fit in time – which would be just the ninth start of the campaign for Berardi.
Should the 30-year-old Swiss ace earn the call from the boss, it would also be his first kick-off since October 24, when we took an early lead against Ipswich Town and moved top of the table with five goals separating us from Middlesbrough.
It sadly is not possible to move back atop the Championship a week on Saturday, but we can at least regain a top-two spot – providing Play-Off hopefuls Bristol City can do us a favour against Sheffield United.
Berardi, though, is focusing on the job we have on our hands, and has issued a rallying cry to his teammates as we enter the final stretch of the season, as per quotes by the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“You can have a good spirit, but if you don’t work in the week, you don’t arrive 100 per cent for the game,” said the fan favourite defender. “It’s a balance, a mix of everything, and that’s why we need to work harder and to know what we can do to improve again.
“Even in this last month, we can improve. We need to ask ourselves ‘what can we do to improve again?’ and then do it.
“It’s been a long season, and it’s not over yet. We started to show that we’re a really good team from the beginning and we’ve been top two for almost all the season, but we don’t need to look at the table too much or look too far ahead.
“If you try to see if you’ll win, lose or draw, you lose too much energy.”