Leicester City have been dealt a huge injury blow ahead of the trip to Newcastle on Sunday. Jamie Vardy is facing a battle to keep his season alive with the Foxes striker no closer to a return.
Vardy has contending with a knee injury sustained in the 1-0 win over Leeds a month ago, just his second game back from a long-term hamstring issue. It had been hoped the 35-year-old would be nearing a return but Brendan Rodgers has revealed he still has pain in his knee ligament.
When asked about his availability prior to the Europa Conference League quarter-final, Rodgers told Leicester Live: “He’s not available. It’s hard to put a timeline on it. He can still feel pain in the knee.
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"It’s just when he’s striking the ball there is an issue, so we have to try to get to the bottom of that. I just had a quick chat with Jamie, he’d been outside and he’d been running in straight lines, but when he was opening up the MCL, when he was striking the ball, he had a little bit of pain in that. I’ll have to speak with the medical team to see where that’s at. It doesn’t sound as if he’s too close to being back.”
City will be without Wilfred Ndidi, Ryan Bertrand and Danny Ward but Luke Thomas returned to face PSV after picking up a hamstring issue international duty with England Under-21s.
Predicted Leicester starting XI: Schmeichel, Ricardo, Evans, Fofana, Castagne, Maddison, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Albrighton, Barnes, Ihenacho.
