Leicester City will be without Ricardo Pereira for their FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United with the full-back unable to recover from a hamstring strain in time for Sunday’s clash at the King Power Stadium.
Brendan Rodgers said “(Ricardo) won’t be available for the weekend but we’re pretty confident after the international break he will be okay. It’s just a slight strain but thankfully nothing too serious. (Maddison) was out on the field today and looked very good. We’re hopeful that if he has a good couple of weeks during the international break, he could be close when we get back. He looked like he had his confidence back and he was really pleased. Hopefully over the international break we can step that up and he could be joining us after that, and that will be great news. Dennis will be available for the weekend. Cengo will be after the international break.”
Harvey Barnes is now doing light mobility work after his knee operation a fortnight ago, and the timescale on his return remains the same, with a possibility of a mid-April return.
Brendan Rodgers said “It’s been a couple of weeks since the operation and he’s doing very well. He was doing some work in the gym today, he was in the pool, mobilising his leg and doing some real good work with the sports science and medical teams. He’s coming along. We’ll see how he goes over the coming weeks. We said at the time we were looking at six weeks to get him back into training, and it’s all going well.”
As well as Barnes, Maddison, Ricardo, and Under, City have Wes Morgan and James Justin unavailable for selection for this weekend’s game. Ricardo was substituted at half-time in last weekend’s win over Sheffield United after complaining of a tight hamstring, and during his press conference on Friday, City manager Brendan Rodgers confirmed that he would not be fit to face the Red Devils. James Maddison also remains unavailable for selection, but has returned to training, and Rodgers believes he will be in contention after the international break. Cengiz Under’s thigh problem will also keep him out of this weekend’s game, but Dennis Praet is fit to rejoin the squad for the first time since his hamstring injury, sustained in the third round at Stoke on the first weekend of January.
