City set to lose 5th player to the African Nations Cup

[Brown Nose]

This is a concern. Apparently, players will leave their clubs after the Boxing Day fixture and the tournament ends on the 6th February. Watford are due to lose five players as well as us but nobody else will be as badly affected.

Our missing players are expected to be: Ndidi, Iheanacho, Amartey, Mendy and now Lookman. They will miss up to eight matches: four PL games and potentially four cup matches if we get through to the LC Semi and FA Cup 4th Round. We then go to Liverpool on the 9th of February so some could well miss that too.

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/...ews/leicester-city-lookman-africa-cup-6134498

In isolation, you can think that we will cope but we need to factor in the likely injury absences we'll have over and above these players being missing. Right now, we've got 4-6 players absent (Fofana, Justin, Ndidi, Perez, Ricardo, Albrighton). If you take those five and another five out for injury, we would be seriously struggling.

 

[Graz]

Ndidi and Nacho are the obvious big misses from that.

If we can get Justin and Fofana back by then, Amartey isn't too much of a concern. Mendy isn't even registered. Lookman is a shame to lose but we can get by without.

Like oyu say though, relies on us not having gaps elsewhere through injury - and if the past 2 seasons are anything to go by then that's unlikely.

 

[tedfoxxx]

****ing hell we might have to start thinking about maybe possibly putting Benkovic on the bench.

 

[FrenchFox]

We should have Soumare to replace Ndidi, Daka to replace Ian and Fofana to replace Amartey. January is not a period of massive fixture congestion, so we should be ok. The match on Wednesday showed us that the second team is seriously lacking in quality, but if we add in the return of Justin, I think that the second half of the season could be the reverse of the last two seasons, that is a better second half than the first

 

[tedfoxxx]

We’ll have to start thinking about which flavour of soup we want because we’ll be getting daily Campbells.

 

[parafox]

Surely it's madness to expect Fofana to be back in January?

 

[FrenchFox]

The original prognosis on Fofana was after Christmas, which I know is very vague. I am sure that I heard that his progress was better than expected, but who knows. If he is not back by then, we have Justin who can play on the right side of a back three.

 

[Ike O'Noclassed]

Surely it's madness to expect Fofana to be back in January?

Mainstream opinion on here, then.

Looking at the sketchy progress of LCFC players who have come back from serious injury to play at our current high level (Ricardo, Barnes, Big Dan ... I can only think of Wilf who has arguably hit the ground running) the idea of our current sick list returning to stellar performances any time soon (this season) seems a tad optimistic if not completely deluded.

 

[sparky79]

We will need to enter the transfer market.

 

[Brown Nose]

Surely it's madness to expect Fofana to be back in January?

Not at all. He's already doing plenty of gym training. He could well be in full training before Xmas.

Staggering but true.

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

We will need to enter the transfer market.

God no... last time we did that in a hurry, we bought a Vestergaard.

 

[big_mac4824]

Not at all. He's already doing plenty of gym training. He could well be in full training before Xmas.

Staggering but true.

still think Feb is more realistic