Farke on injury crisis, finishing strongly and safety

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Brighton at Elland Road (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Farke began with a lengthy team news update: "Ilia Gruev is out for the season, we spoke about this. Noah Okafor, he's not available for this game. Gabriel Gudmundsson and Jayden Bogle are not available for this game, Facundo Buonanotte [on loan from Brighton] is not eligible to play."
• He continued: "We also have Pascal Struijk not in training yet after the last game. Big doubt if he's available [for the weekend]. Ethan Ampadu struggling with illness currently, major doubt and was not in training today so a few question marks but so far we have always found a solution to send a competitive side on the pitch and this is also what we will try to do in our last home game."
• Despite such injury issues, which he described as "the most difficult situation we had during the whole season", Farke said: "We want to finish as strong as possible and with the best possible result. I back my whole group and I back my players also in these circumstances still to deliver one more top performance here at home and then also to be competitive against a really strong side who is fighting for Europe. But in this game we definitely need our supporters to carry us a little bit but we'll work on solutions to be competitive."
• He said that it was a "pretty privileged position" as a newly-promoted side to be safe with two games to go on 44 points and said Leeds can play with a "smile on our face".
• Farke expressed his "heartfelt gratitude" to the club, stating they "trusted me to come in a difficult moment into this club and to lead this club into, hopefully, a better future."