Pascal Struijk posts on Instagram, Ben White and other Leeds stars react

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Pascal Struijk has posted on Instagram after the Dutch defender somewhat surprisingly made his third Leeds United appearance at senior level on Thursday evening – prompting reaction from Ben White, Jack Clarke and others.

Going into Thursday’s Yorkshire derby at Elland Road, Leeds were tasked with securing four points from their final three games to finally gain promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years.

They claimed three of those four with a 1-0 win, thanks to Michael Sollbauer’s own goal – after good work from Mateusz Klich and Patrick Bamford. But on another day, Leeds could have easily suffered defeat.

Barnsley were excellent and will be devastated not to have come away with at least a point, which was more than deserved. Marcelo Bielsa’s tactics were undone and Struijk helped solve that – posting on Instagram after the match.

A regular in Carlos Corberan’s Under-23 side, Struijk is a central defender but Bielsa chose to throw him in front of the back four as a holding midfielder. Despite his age and lack of experience, Struijk stood up to the challenge.

Plenty of Leeds players responded to his post on Instagram, with White commenting “simply amazing”. Clarke, Kalvin Phillips and Olly Casey also responded – the latter describing Struijk as “Wolverine”.