Lucas Perri is adamant that he is ‘fully fit’ and ready to go as Leeds United’s No 1 in the Premier League.
Perri, 27, made his debut on Saturday in Leeds’ friendly against Milan in Ireland but played just 45 minutes before Karl Darlow came on for the second half.
Leeds signed the goalkeeper from Lyon for £15.6M on July 26 but the Brazilian only started training with his team-mates this week after a minor injury initially kept him out.
‘Yeah I’m totally fit,’ said Perri. ‘I had a minor hamstring problem a few weeks ago so they took a slow approach with my return but now I’m fully fit, 100 per cent and ready to go.
‘Defensively we are doing a pretty good job during pre-season and offensively, we are scoring goals. We’re ready and we are ready to fight.’
During his debut in front of a sell-out crowd in Dublin, Leeds fans got a glimpse of Perri’s enormous 50 metre throws and he revealed that it took a show of faith from his goalkeeping coach at Botafogo, Daniel Correia, before he started to use it in matches.
Leeds summer signing Lucas Perri is raring to go after becoming the side’s No 1 goalkeeper
Daniel Farke has decided to turn to the summer signing from Lyon ahead of the new campaign
‘I’ve loved to throw since I was young. In training at Botafogo, I used to do it a lot in training but not so much in games and the goalkeeping coach said I should start to do this in games,’ said Perri.
‘Then I started to recognise the patterns of what works and what doesn’t but I’ve had the far throws since I was a kid.’
Perri wore the No 1 shirt – which was previously held by Illan Meslier – in Ireland and Leeds manager Daniel Farke confirmed that Meslier was left behind for the trip as he wasn’t needed.
Leeds begin their top-flight campaign against Everton next Monday night at Elland Road.
‘We decided to play two goalkeepers so it was not necessary for him (Meslier) to travel,’ said Farke.
‘I wanted to give Lucas Perri the first 45 minutes and Karl (Darlow) is ahead of him (Meslier) in the pecking order.’
Illan Meslier (right) was left out of the trip to Dublin after falling to be fourth choice goalkeeper
On giving Perri the No 1 shirt, Farke added: ‘It’s quite normal. We invested – by our standards – a big sum to bring Lucas in.
‘I don’t give any guarantees away about who’s starting but of course Lucas is likely to play a role for us (against Everton) and for that, we decided to give him the No 1 shirt.
‘It’s not a decision against Illan. It’s also for the confidence of Lucas to make him welcome and show why we signed him.’
