Leeds United boss Daniel Farke on winger's off-field issue and availability for Millwall
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According to the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] the 23-year-old pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance on April 14 of last year. It added that Poveda will be sentenced for the offences on October 6 at Manchester City Magistrates' Court.
Farke says his general approach to such incidents is that players have private lives but they still have a job to do.
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Hide Ad"I respect my players as being human beings and also mature, and they have a private life,” he said.
"Obviously I always prefer when in their private life everything's okay, but like all human beings [have to be] also professional. We all have sometimes our times when it's also a bit tough for us due to private reasons or whatever and then we still have to keep going in our job. So again, it's also like I asked him to be professional and to concentrate on the hard work.”
Farke’s belief is that football can help during periods of off-field adversity but if he detected that a private issue was impacting a player’s form then he would step in. He says this has not been the case with Poveda.
“It always helps to concentrate on your work, especially having to concentrate on football to be together there with your teammates and do what you love to because we all love to play and work in football and for that it won't affect us too much,” he said.
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Hide Ad“If I sense this anyhow on the training pitch or something like this, yes, I would react but I have not sensed anything at all and all my players who are there are available.”
This summer Poveda returned to Leeds and has been part of new manager Farke's plans, impressing in pre-season against Nottingham Forest and playing 90 minutes in the Championship game against Birmingham City.A groin injury then kept him out of action until he returned as an unused substitute when Sheffield Wednesday visited Elland Road.