LEICESTER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 22: A Leicester City flag during the Sky Bet Championship match between Leicester City and Ipswich Town at The King Power Stadium on January 22, 2024 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Leicester City waiting to add three players to their strongest matchday squad.
When every Leicester City player recovers from their serious injuries, Steve Cooper’s starting line-up may not change, but his substitutes’ bench probably will do.
Injuries have not dominated Leicester City’s season so far and they will hope to keep it that way.
Two months into the season and none of the serious contenders to be in Steve Cooper’s starting line-up have suffered any problems. Jamie Vardy overcame an injury pre-season in the nick of time, while Jannik Vestergaard was dropped for Caleb Okoli just before his ankle issue, with the Dane now back in contention.
Right now, City only have three players unavailable. But while the starting 11 may not change upon their returns, the matchday squad as a whole might.
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Jakub Stolarczyk is now four-to-six weeks away from a return after breaking his foot in July, at the start of the second week of pre-season. Because the Pole injured himself so early into Cooper’s tenure, it’s not known where the manager sees him in the goalkeeper pecking order, albeit he would be expected to displace Danny Ward on the bench and become Mads Hermansen’s deputy again, as he was last season.
It’s a similar situation for Patson Daka, who is now back on the grass after his serious ankle injury in the final pre-season fixture, although the striker is still someway from returning to full training, never mind matches. He did play throughout pre-season, but that was while Vardy was injured and before Odsonne Edouard arrived.
It does seem Cooper likes the Zambian though and when fully fit, he could come back onto the bench to be the alternative to Vardy. Edouard has only had a couple of brief opportunities to impress so far, but hasn’t managed to do so, and so if Daka gets up to speed quickly, who could be the striker selected for the bench.
With Hamza Choudhury, there’s plenty that is unknown. His dislocated shoulder needed to settle down before a full assessment was conducted. In the best-case scenario, he may only be out for another few weeks. If the problem is severe, then it could be a few months before he’s seen again.
If he is back quickly, then expect him to return to the bench sooner rather than later. While Wilfred Ndidi, Oliver Skipp, and Harry Winks are the first-choice trio in central midfield, it seems Choudhury is ahead of Boubakary Soumare in the pecking order for the fourth spot, and so the academy graduate is likely to come back into the frame as soon as he is fit.
