WITH 17 PLAYERS OUT, WE HAD NO OPTION BUT TO CANCEL TONIGHT
OVERWORKED PLAYERS
LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers felt he needed to “protect his players”, leading to the postponement of the tonight’s scheduled trip to Everton.
At the last count, City had just eight available senior outfield players, five short of the 13 they needed to be forced to fulfil the league fixture at Goodison Park.
In total, City have 17 senior outfield players unavailable for Everton. They are Ricardo Pereira, Timothy Castagne, Luke Thomas, Ryan Bertrand, James Justin, Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Wesley Fofana, Daniel Amartey, Filip Benkovic, Wilfred Ndidi, Papy Mendy, Boubakary Soumare, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho and Patson Daka.
The club applied for a postponement on Sunday and it was granted by the Premier League board, the game called off for a second time following an initial postponement when City had a Covid outbreak in December.
Covid is not the principal issue now, but rather injuries. Given that is the case, it is a decision that has caused some controversy.
Also prompting discussion is that City were able to field a side in the FA Cup at the weekend and comfortably beat a Premier League opponent in Watford.
FA rules dictated there was no way in which the match could be postponed, and so City called up seven outfield players from the development squad, with five featuring, including 16-year-old Will Alves, and with two as unused substitutes.
Speaking before the postponement decision was made, City boss Rodgers said he had to consider his players’ welfare.
He has argued previously that the injuries in the squad have been caused by Covid, with December’s outbreak preventing him from rotating, leading to overworked players and muscle issues.
Without players returning to fitness, there was nobody to ease the load on the few who played on Saturday.
“We have to look at it, that’s the reality,” he said. “We played (in the FA Cup) because those were the rules of the competition, the young players counted and were available. And so we got a really good performance out of that.
“The Premier League is a different kettle of fish. The reality is we have eight first-team players available. We have to see what that looks like. But certainly it’s way below what the stipulation would be and that’s something we have to bear in mind, not just for ourselves, but for the overall integrity of the competition.
“You’ve seen what we’ve tried to do over the course of the Christmas period, we’ve done everything, Man City, then Liverpool, the games we’ve had. But there comes a point where I need to protect the players as well.”
As well as injuries, City also have a quartet at the Africa Cup of Nations. Rodgers had expressed frustration that the Everton match had been rescheduled for during the tournament.
RODGERS SAYS THERE IS DUTY OF CARE TO PROTECT