FA Cup tie may come too soon for Ricardo
MADDISON COULD BE RESTED FOR STOKE GAME AFTER KNEE SCARE
BRENDAN Rodgers is hoping Ricardo Pereira will be back in contention soon, with the rightback the only unavailable player at Leicester City.
With Timothy Castagne, Daniel Amartey, Caglar Soyuncu and Cengiz Under all returning to the squad over the past three weeks, City’s once-lengthy injury list is now almost clear.
Ricardo, who picked up a groin injury in his comeback game against Zorya Luhansk at the start of the month, was pictured in training last week as he bids to make a return to competitive action, although this weekend’s FA Cup third round tie at Stoke may come too soon for him.
After Sunday’s 2-1 win over Newcastle, Brendan Rodgers said of the Portuguese full-back: “Ricky will hopefully be back very soon.”
During that win at St James’ Park, there was a big injury scare for City when James Maddison went down in pain in the first half, appearing to jar his knee.
After treatment, he was able to run it off and score the opener, but he has said he was initially worried, and so will get it checked out by the City physios.
Maddison told LCFC TV: “It felt like a hyperextension of my leg and I was a bit worried for a second about my knee because you can never be too careful with knee injuries, especially when you’re not sure what’s going on.
“But it seemed to settle down quite quickly which I was very pleased about because I was worried at the start. We’ve got some good physios and I’m sure they’ll have a look at it.”
Maddison may not be needed this weekend anyway with rotation possible for the trip to the bet365 Stadium.
Rodgers may not feel wholesale changes are necessary with no midweek games to consider until later in the month, but the likes of Soyuncu, Luke Thomas, Papy Mendy, Dennis Praet, Under, and Ayoze Perez could all be handed a run-out.