Laurens De Bock leaves Leeds, heads back to Belgium on loan

Another Leeds United player appears to have ended, at least temporarily, his short, unhappy spell at Leeds.

It was announced today that defender Laurens De Bock, who joined Leeds last January from Club Brugge, has gone back to Belgium to join K. V. Oostende on loan for the rest of the 2018-19 season.

Per the Leeds United official website:

Leeds United can confirm full-back Laurens De Bock has today joined Belgian side K. V. Oostende.

De Bock will spend the rest of the 2018/19 campaign on loan at the Jupiler Pro League side.

The 25 year-old joined Leeds from Club Brugge and went on to make seven appearances for the Whites.

De Bock was brought in to be the solution at left back, but he looked awful in a number of appearances and was unable to settle the position that had seen Manchester United loanee Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Vurnon Anita, Gaetano Berardi, and Stuart Dallas all try and replace the departed Charlie Taylor.

It was not until Leeds U23 star Tom Pearce came up from the Academy and played brilliantly did Leeds get any consistency at the position.

De Bock did not appear to be in the plans of new Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa, so perhaps it’s for the best that the defender go out on loan. Players switching leagues and cultures usually seems really easy, and many players do just fine, but other player struggle and play better once they are back in their home country. Perhaps that is all that De Bock needs.