Steve Cooper
Leicester City are nursing just two long-term injuries but Steve Cooper will be working with a depleted squad over the international break. Striker Patson Daka and goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk are the only senior City players currently sidelined, both recovering from ankle surgery after sustaining injuries in pre-season. Daka was ruled out for three months, and so is due back in November, but while Stolarczyk was scheduled for a six-month lay-off, preventing him from playing again until 2025, it’s understood he could return some time in the autumn. Conor Coady had missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury but returned to fitness earlier than expected. He played his first minutes of the season as a substitute in the Carabao Cup victory over Tranmere. Daniel Iversen was drafted to the bench, with young goalkeeper Stevie Bausor in the training group on Saturday. If it was an injury to Ward, it wasn’t a serious one, as he has reported for Wales duty ahead of their Nations League fixtures against Turkey and Montenegro. He is one of 13 senior City players to have been called up to represent their country over the next 10 days. Mads Hermansen, Jannik Vestergaard, and Victor Kristiansen are all in the Denmark squad, Wout Faes is going away with Belgium, and Wilfred Ndidi has been called up by Nigeria. City now have two players in the Ghana squad in Abdul Fatawu and Jordan Ayew, with Bobby De Cordova-Reid in Steve McClaren’s first Jamaica squad and with new signing Bilal El Khannouss flying back out to represent Morocco. Will Alves joins loanees Sammy Braybrooke and Ben Nelson in the England Under-20 squad, while there are maiden senior call-ups for Caleb Okoli and Kasey McAteer. Okoli has been included in the Italy squad for the first time as they reshuffle the pack following a disappointing campaign at the European Championship, while McAteer is in the Republic of Ireland squad after pledging his allegiance to the country. On McAteer’s call-up,
Steve Cooper said: “It’s good recognition for him and for the club and the journey through the academy he’s been on. It should hopefully encourage him even more to work hard. He’s a good lad with a really good attitude. He’s had a good pre-season. He’s still finding his way, which is normal for where he’s at in his career. He signed a new contract recently so he can put that out of his mind. We want to push him to contribute as much as he can. We really want to push him to play well for us, and if he does, other things like international honours will come his way as well.”
With all of the internationals, it leaves Cooper with just 14 fit senior players to work with, albeit they will be given time off before returning to training. The non-internationals are Iversen, Ricardo Pereira, James Justin, Luke Thomas, Coady, Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp, Hamza Choudhury, Boubakary Soumare, Facundo Buonanotte, Michael Golding, Stephy Mavididi, Jamie Vardy, and Odsonne Edouard. Which player has impressed you most over the first month of the season? Click HERE to have your say.
