Castagne completes 90 mins for Belgium
LEICESTER City have been provided with a fitness boost after Timothy Castagne completed 90 minutes for Belgium.
Castagne was playing just his second match since fracturing his eye socket in the summer, and having looked unsurprisingly rusty in City’s 2-1 win over Norwich, Brendan Rodgers will be glad to see him get a full game on international duty.
Playing as a right-sided wing-back before switching to the left with just over half an hour to go, Castagne helped Belgium beat Czech Republic 3-0 on Sunday to stay top of their World Cup qualifying group.
In assessing his performance, Belgian paper Het Nieuwsblad awarded him a score of six out of 10, writing: “The man in the mask played a simple but efficient match. Had to make some sharp tackles.
“After the break, he switched from the right to the left wing without any problems.”
After the win over Norwich, Rodgers had said he would be happy for his players to go away and feature for their countries in order to build up fitness.
He will be particularly pleased that Castagne has been able to, given he was behind his club team-mates. He did not feature in pre-season, with his first action coming 10 minutes into the victory at Carrow Road, when he had to replace the injured Ricardo Pereira.
“He was a little bit behind the others in terms of fitness,” Rodgers said on Castagne. “He’s looked very good in training, working his way back to fitness.
“He’s a player I brought into here, so naturally I love his game, and I love what his game can bring to the team. He can give us that penetration.”
Castagne was not the only City player to feature for Belgium on Sunday evening, with Youri Tielemans playing 80 minutes, the midfielder back in the team after an ankle knock kept him out of the win over Estonia last Thursday.
He played the pass before the assist in both of the opening two goals on Sunday night in a performance that was praised by local media.
Giving him a seven out of 10, Het Nieuwsblad said of Tielemans: “Had a moderate European Championship, but now looks much fresher and sharper. He touched the ball a lot, sprinkled with forward passes and gave the pre-assist for the first two goals. Less present after the break.”
The pair could be in action for Belgium again on Wednesday, when they travel to Belarus for another World Cup qualifier.
Plenty of City players have finished their international commitments though. None of Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi (both Nigeria), Daniel Amartey (Ghana), nor Patson Daka (Zambia) will be able to feature in their nation’s next fixture, as they are taking place in a red list country.
With no travel exemptions given to footballers by the UK government, the Premier League banned players from heading to red list territories so they would not have to isolate for 10 days on returning to England.
Meanwhile, Luke Thomas could make his England under-21s debut on Tuesday when they host Kosovo in a European Championship qualifier in Milton Keynes.
Tottenham’s Ryan Sessegnon, who would likely have been the starter at left-back, has withdrawn from the squad, opening up a spot for Thomas.
STAR MAKES Sport FURTHER PROGRESS AS HE BATTLES BACK FROM FRACTURED EYE SOCKET