LEEDS United boss Daniel Farke will be keeping his fingers crossed that his table-toppers will return from international duty unscathed.

The break from league action comes as the Whites moved to the head of the Championship with Sunday’s 2-0 win against Millwall at fortress Elland Road.

United have momentum and Farke could do without seeing as many as twelve players away from LS11 as they link up with their respective national sides.

He wants his men to enjoy being at the summit but warns there is still all to play for with eight games remaining.

He said: “If you don’t enjoy such a moment you’ll ask yourself one day why you’re doing all this disciplined work.

"We can be pretty proud but we want to be in a good position after 46 game days.”

His team emerged from a physical contest with the Lions with an eighth successive league home win, having picked up 37 points out of a possible 39 this year.

The victory lifted Leeds above Leicester on goal difference for the first time this season, having played a game more than the Foxes, while Ipswich are a point behind in third place.

Neil Harris’ men were ultra-competitive but patient Leeds didn’t get sucked into a battle and patiently stitched their attacking football together.

Millwall’s defenders were at full stretch on several occasions before Willie Gnonto cut in from the right flank in the 33rd minute and launched a blistering left-foot shot past goalkeeper Matija Sarkic to break the Londoners’ resistance.

Shortly afterwards Sarkic prevented United from doubling their lead when his full-stretch save denied Crysencio Summerville.

With half-time approaching Leeds thought they should have been awarded a penalty when Jake Cooper, already on a booking, ploughed into Joe Rodon catching him in the face with his knee.

Referee Stephen Martin ignored the howls of the home fans for a penalty and red card and waved play-on.

Thanks to some excellent defending by Japhet Tanganga, Millwall were still in the game and they belatedly started to ask questions after Harris made a raft of substitutions to re-energise his side.

Although Millwall were posing more of a threat Leeds still created the better chances. After Sarkic twice denied Georginio Rutter and a brilliant block by Tanganga kept out a Patrick Bamford flick, home nerves were finally calmed on 78 minutes.

Rutter wriggled round Tanganga to set up substitute Dan James to coolly slot in his 12th goal of the campaign.

He almost added another in additional time with a fierce cross-shot which shook an upright but the points were already secured.

Farke said: “I’m pretty proud of the boys because it was a different challenge today. In recent weeks we’ve had to play every two or three days.

“Now we’ve had nine or 10 days between the games, we’re not used to it, so it’s not easy to start such a game against such a competitive side. All in all it was a pretty mature performance.”