Leicester Coach, Rodgers, Allays Fears over Ndidi’s Injury

Leicester Coach, Rodgers, Allays Fears over Ndidi’s Injury

By Femi Solajawith

Leicester City Manager, Brendan Rodgers, has reassured teeming fans of the club that Super Eagles midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, would soon be back to action.

The update aside being a good one to the club’s faithful, is also a cheering news to Nigerian fans as they will expect Ndidi to be fit and available for the next round of AFCON 2022 qualifying matches in March.

The Nigerian midfielder was handed his 11th Premier League appearance of the season as he played for only 42 minutes before suffering a hamstring setback at Everton on Wednesday night.

He was replaced in the 42nd minute by former France youth international of Senegalese descent Nampalys Mendy to avoid infuriating the problem.

In his absence, the Foxes picked up a point at ambitious Everton’s ground after Youri Tielemans cancelled out James Rodriguez’s first-half strike in the 67th minute.

But Rodgers, in an interview with the club’s website has however, allayed fears that Ndidi would be on the sidelines for so long as the 24-year-old is only ‘tightened up’.
“Wilf was tight, it was the back of his hamstring, so we’ll see how that goes in the next couple of days,” the Northern Irish manager said after the game on Leicester City website.

“It’s just tightened up. He doesn’t think he’s overstretched or tore it. We’ll just have to assess that. We couldn’t risk it.”
However, it is likely that the talented Nigerian would be available for Sunday’s league showdown versus Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United at the King Power Stadium.

With the 1-1 score line on Wednesday night against Carlo Ancelotti’s men, the 2015–16 English kings extended their unbeaten run to nine across all competitions.
Also, they sit in third place in the English topflight log having accrued 39 points from 20 outings – two points below leaders Manchester City.
Since the start of the 2020-21 campaign, the former Genk man has been battling with several degrees of injuries which reduced his playing time to 15 games so far.
Ndidi recently returned from a groin injury – a setback suffered in September 2020 – and as a result was out of action for over three months.

Since moving to England from the Belgian elite division, the midfielder has grown into an essential part of the team.

Having impressed in his maiden season, he was named the club’s best young talent in 2016-17. He retained the prize the next season, beating Ben Chilwell and Demarai Gray.

On the international scene, he remains a key member of Gernot Rohr’s squad since his debut in 2015

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