The latest Leicester City news as Enzo Maresca’s team make the journey down south on Friday night.
Since Leicester City will resume play in just a few days, the international break is now more than halfway through.
City supporters don’t have as long of a wait as most after a weekend without Championship games until the team plays again. On Friday at 8 p.m., they travel to face Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium.
It does imply that, once his international players return, Enzo Maresca won’t have much time to prepare. Those travelling with their countries include Mads Hermansen, Danny Ward, Wout Faes, Harry Souttar, Callum Doyle, Cesare Casadei, Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Patson Daka.
The majority of them were active over the weekend, with Souttar and Daka contributing to the score, and we’re crossing our fingers that they all recover fully. For those that remained at Seagrave, attention was focused on the match against Southampton. Conor Coady’s return to training may have handed City a significant injury boost ahead of the encounter.
Conor Coady
After arriving at the King Power Stadium in the summer, Coady suffered a foot injury during pre-season which prevented him from making his debut for the club. But it could happen soon.
After the first few weeks of wearing protective boots and watching from the sidelines, the defender is about to return. He was supposed to return to practice last week, and it appeared he was.
Coady was seen taking part in a game of rondos with his teammates in clips released by the club during the week, to the delight of fans on social media. It remains unclear whether Friday night’s game will come too soon for Coady, but it appears he is edging closer to making his long-awaited debut for the club.
Robert Praet
Due to a back injury received on the Friday before the match against Cardiff City, Praet has missed the previous four games after playing in the first three games of the season in all competitions. Prior to the match against Hull, Enzo Maresca announced that the midfielder would miss three months due to the injury.
It’s an important injury. It’s probably between 10 and 12 weeks. It’s his back,” he said. It means that Praet won’t be expected to return to action until around November, with the game against Leeds United on 4 November maybe one being earmarked.
Alex Smithies
The goalkeeper has not made a single appearance for the club since signing last summer, but was brought in as third choice goalkeeper behind Daniel Iversen and Danny Ward. The emergence of Jakub Solarkczyk and the signing of Mads Hermansen has seen him fall further down the pecking order, but he has also been unavailable anyway due to injury.
How long he is out for is unknown, but he won’t be able to feature for City in the Championship until after January anyway. With City’s squad one over the 25 allowed, Smithies was the man to miss out as the squad was released by the EFL this week.
