Knight on loan for the season at Wycombe

CITY NEWS CITY NEED TO LEAVE PLAYERS OUT TO MEET 24-MAN SQUAD

LEICESTER City defender Josh Knight has sealed another loan spell away from the club with a move to Wycombe Wanderers until January.

Knight has spent the past 18 months on loan at Peterborough and, while he has not managed to force his way into Brendan Rodgers’ plans, he has impressed enough to earn Championship interest.

The 23-year-old, who can play centre-back, right-back or in central midfield, now boosts the Chairboys’ ranks on a loan deal until the new year. His City contract runs out next summer.

At Adams Park, the aim is to avoid relegation in what is Wycombe’s first-ever season in the second tier. They have started the campaign with four straight defeats and are yet to score.

After securing the signing of Knight, Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth said: “Josh is someone we tried to bring in during the summer and I’m really pleased to be able to get the deal done.

“We’ve been keeping tabs on him for some time and he proved he could make the step up into senior football with a really strong loan spell in League One last season.

“He gives us another option in defence and he comes in at an important time as we’re working hard to get the team as strong as possible to make sure we can start picking up points and meeting the standard that’s required to survive in this division.”

Fleckney-born Knight made his City debut in 2017, but has not played since.

Over the past one-and-a-half seasons, he’s played 34 games for Peterborough, scoring three goals and providing four assists.

He become City’s seventh loan departure, with Kamal Sowah, Josh Eppiah and Daniel Iversen at OH Leuven, Darnell Johnson at Wigan, George Hirst at Rotherham and Rachid Ghezzal at Besiktas. they have too many players available.

Of those given a squad number, City have 28 who would need to be registered on List A. However, the maximum they would be allowed to register is 24.

A squad of 25 is allowed, but four of those have to be club-trained players, of which City only have three in Harvey Barnes, Hamza Choudhury and Kiernan DewsburyHall. As such, they lose their right to one of the spots.

If City chose not to register Dewsbury-Hall because they intend to send him out on loan, then they will only be allowed to name a squad of 23.

To bring their number down from 28 to 24, City would have to omit four, and two are likely to be Filip Benkovic and Matty James.

The pair could yet leave on loan to an EFL club before October 16. Wilfred Ndidi could be another to miss out, due to his injury.

The Nigerian midfielder is not expected to fully recover from his groin issue until close to Christmas, by which time all six of the group games will have been played. If City reach the knockout stages, they can edit their squad and then include a hopefully fully-fit Ndidi.

That would leave one more player to exclude. Ricardo Pereira is not due to be fit until the beginning of November, and so could miss out on half of the group fixtures.

If Daniel Amartey’s hamstring issue proves serious, he could be left out for a similar reason.

Demarai Gray has not been included in any of the Premier League matchday squads yet, so could be another candidate, while Wesley Fofana’s arrival may limit the need to include captain Wes Morgan.

All three senior goalkeepers are likely to be included, in case of injury. Left-back Luke Thomas, as a club-trained player below the age of 21, can be registered on List B, which can include an unlimited number of players.

■ City’s 28 senior players are below. Goalkeepers: Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Ward, Eldin Jakupovic Full-backs: Ricardo Pereira, James Justin, Timothy Castagne, Christian Fuchs

Centre-backs: Wes Morgan, Daniel Amartey, Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Filip Benkovic, Wesley Fofana

Central midfielders: Matty James, Papy Mendy, Wilfred Ndidi, Hamza Choudhury, James Maddison, Youri Tielemans, Dennis Praet, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

Wingers: Marc Albrighton, Demarai Gray, Harvey Barnes, Ayoze Perez, Cengiz Under

Strikers: Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho

BIG MATCH: James Justin could be in England U21 action this afternoon