Olympiacos' new signing Leon Bailey faces a delayed debut as manager José Luis Mendilibar prioritises fitness over haste, omitting the former Aston Villa star from the trip to Volos.
Olympiacos face Volos in Matchday 3 of the Super League Greece after picking up two wins out of the two played in the league this season.
The Red and Whites completed the signing of Leon Bailey from Aston Villa few days back, and the Jamaican international has already introduced himself at the Rentis Training Center to his new teammates. The winger is slowly settling in at the club and Mendilibar has already included him in Olympiacos' official squad list for the upcoming UEFA Europa League fixtures. The team will begin its preparations for their first European league phase clash against Polish top-flight side Jagiellonia Bialystok on 16 September following the Greek league match against OFI Crete F.C..
Mendilibar announced his squad for today's match versus Volos at the Panthessaliko Stadium. Fans wanting to watch Bailey make his debut for the side will have to wait for at least the next matchday (Olympiacos welcome Volos at the Karaiskakis Stadium for the Greek Cup midweek) to see him play. The Spanish boss went with the likes of Kostas Fortounis, Gustavo Sa, Gelson Martins, Dani Garcia, Gustavo Puerta, Lorenzo Scipioni, Remo Freuler, Chiquinho, Santiago Hezze and Joel Roca for the midfield department, leaving Bailey out.
According to a report by Gazzetta.gr, there is no rush in involving the former Aston Villa man in Olympiacos' immediate games, as the idea is for him to start getting regular minutes from October. However, Mendilibar will try to start him in a match before the international break, but at Olympiacos, they want him to be fully match-ready when he takes to the pitch instead of a hasty debut.
The Greek giants are taking in slow with Bailey since he had to deal with several injury issues last season at the Birmingham-based club. Nobody at Thrylos wants him to pick up an unexpected knock just days into the new season, and considering how they went past the possible signings of Ruben Vargas, Jesse Bisiwu and Pablo Garcia to secure Bailey.
As mentioned earlier, Bailey has found space in Mendilibar's 21-man list for the first eight matchdays of the Europa League. There was a doubt over new signing Armando Gonzalez's presence in the squad, but he was added in the final list alongside forwards Ayoub El Kaabi and Jota Silva. Scipioni was left out to appease the UEFA regulations which allow only 17 non-locally trained players to feature in the European squad.
