October 05, (THEWILL) –Â Nigeria’s Leicester City midfield enforcer Wilfred Ndidi is expected to be out for up to five weeks after suffering a hamstring injury in last month’s 2-2 draw with Burnley at their home grounds of the King Power Stadium.
Ndidi was forced to miss his side’s 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on Sunday, as well as the Foxes’ Europa League defeat to Legia Warsaw last week, due to the injury. Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers revealed the entire depth of the problem following the Palace game, and it was not good news.
“Wilf did it in the Burnley game, which was unfortunate. It could be four to five weeks before he is back, we’ll see how it goes,” he said.
Rodgers already has first-teamers James Justin and Wesley Fofana out with injuries. Due to a back problem, Jonny Evans has only made a handful of appearances this season, leaving the Foxes’ defence looking shaky.
The injury to Ndidi has weakened Leicester’s defensive resolve even further. Since joining the Foxes in 2017, the Nigerian has established himself as one of Europe’s best holding midfielders.
In each of the previous two seasons, his absence from the starting lineup coincided with Leicester’s poor form. Rodgers will be trying to avoid a repetition this time, since his team is already struggling.
With eight points from seven games, they are now 13th in the Premier League table. The results have also been disappointing in Europe. Despite being tipped as favourites to win the UEFA Europa League at the start of the season, they have only one point from their first two group games.
Summer signing Boubakary Soumare is the most likely replacement for Ndidi in the centre of the field, though Hamza Choudhury started alongside Youri Tielemans versus Palace this weekend.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
