Neil Warnock is the latest victim of the virus that has been sweeping the club over the past week.

Assistant boss Mick Jones confirmed the boss had stayed away from the training ground on Thursday morning as preparations continued for Saturday's FA Cup third round tie with Birmingham at Elland Road (3pm).

"It's not good, there's no point in hiding from it," said Mick. "We all know about it sweeping around the country.

"There was a bit before Christmas and it seemed to ease off, but the lads we sent home last week were quite ill and the manager is as well now.

"It sounds like a similar sort of thing to what Brendan Rogers had at Liverpool when he stayed away from the players, and ironically they turned in a great performance and won."

The management dealt with similar issues before the New Year's Day win against Bolton.

"It was an interesting situation because you can't divulge what's happening before the game with six or seven players being ill, and being sick at the training ground and at the stadium," explained Mick.

"You have to pull things back, and keep anyone who doesn't feel well away from training and keep the virus away from everyone to make sure we have a team out for Birmingham on Saturday.

"You still have to admit given all that, it wasn't the best spectacle on Tuesday, but my experience tells me that in two or three weeks time no one will give a damn about that performance, they'll only care about the thee points."

With a number of players being monitored health-wise, changes will certainly be made from the team which beat Bolton to start the year.

"We have to keep an eye on everyone and we trained well on Thursday," said Mick. "We've asked the lads with a virus to stay away, but hopefully we'll have a team good enough for Saturday.

"We would make changes Saturday anyway, but the players who will come in are good squad players and I would expect a good performance."