OH Leuven thereafter never managed to close the gap to Cercle Brugge and had to settle for the Europa League play-off matches, in which they scored wins against Waasland-Beveren and Excel Mouscron and a draw against a strong Zulte Waregem.

No official news was released at the time about Jeroen Simaeys, who had suffered a serious injury early 2017, but he was no longer being presented as part of the squad in spite of having a running contract.

[1] On top of this in May Belgian First Amateur Division team Heist announced the signing of defender Mehdi Bounou,[2] while Kenneth Houdret moved to direct opponents Union SG.

[3] On the incoming side, OH Leuven announced mid May the dual signing of defenders Clément Fabre (from Tubize) and Kenneth Schuermans (from Westerlo), while also mentioning that goalkeeper Laurent Henkinet had extended his contract by three seasons until 2020.

[4] Early June saw two further departures, with first Soufiane El Banouhi following Kenneth Houdret to Union SG,[5] followed by Romain Reynaud who moved to French fourth tier team Andrézieux-Bouthéon.

As newly signed player Clément Fabre had suffered a serious injury near the end of July, which meant he would be unavailable for at least several months, two more defenders were brought in: Ivorian international Mamadou Bagayoko was signed from Sint-Truiden[18] while English youth international Elliott Moore arrived on loan from Leicester City,[19] with that transfer being arranged due to the fact that both OH Leuven and Leicester were now under ownership of King Power.

[29] Although Ivorian international goalkeeper Copa had announced his retirement already a few weeks before, he arrived one day after the end of the transfer window on a free basis from Lokeren as an experienced backup and coach for Nick Gillekens, Laurent Henkinet and youngster Andreas Suederick.