Bridges blow underlines O'Leary's need to bolster squad

Michael Bridges has suffered a shattering blow to his comeback hopes, with the Leeds United striker now ruled out until at least the new year. His manager, David O'Leary, had pencilled in Bridges for a first-team return by the start of November, which would have finally ended a distressing 12 months for the 22-year-old.

Bridges initially damaged his ankle during a Champions' League game against Besiktas in Istanbul last October, only to then sustain a knee injury, which required surgery in the summer, as he stepped up his efforts to regain fitness.

However, Leeds' 21-goal leading scorer during the 1999-2000 season has now suffered a further complication, with O'Leary confirming: "Michael is going to be out for a long time. He's had another setback with his knee injury. We don't know how long he will be out, but he certainly won't be back this side of Christmas."

With fellow striker Alan Smith now into his sixth week on the sidelines with an ankle ligament injury, it is no wonder O'Leary has again been linked with a move for Liverpool's out-of-favour striker Robbie Fowler. PSV Eindhoven's Mark van Bommel and Hertha Berlin's Sebastian Deisler are another two names in the frame following chairman Peter Ridsdale's recent admission there is cash available for O'Leary to strengthen his squad, although the Leeds manager was giving little away.

"I'm just going off to buy a few players this afternoon," quipped O'Leary last night. "It's nice of the chairman to give me about £100m for all those players. He's a great chairman and I'm going to try and sign them all. They're all great players, so it just shows what great taste I have. I'll be pursuing them, even Robbie Fowler, although he's been coming here for the last couple of years."

Sarcasm aside, O'Leary is desperate to add to his squad, his situation made worse by the re-trial of Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate, which starts on 8 October, while Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka face international duty with Australia for three weeks in November.

With O'Leary having consistently bemoaned his lack of a right-sided player, he is apparently poised to return to former club Arsenal in an attempt to sign Ray Parlour. The 28-year-old has been quoted as saying he would leave Highbury if first-team chances continued to remain limited.

O'Leary insisted: "There's nobody coming in for the time being. I'd love to prove people wrong, but it's easier said than done. We do need players because of the challenge we face ahead, but I won't buy just for the sake of buying.

"You can't just go in and get players if their clubs won't let them go. Plenty of clubs want plenty of my players, but I don't let them go. So it's very hard."