Vestergaard, Hermansen, McAteer – Leicester City injury latest ahead of QPR tie
Ruud van Nistelrooy is hopeful Jannik Vestergaard will not join Leicester City's list of injured key players when the club assess the centre-back this week.
Vestergaard hobbled out of City’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday, the Dane replaced by Wout Faes around the hour mark. He has started every match under van Nistelrooy, forming a centre-back partnership with Conor Coady that has helped City to cut down on the chances they’re conceding, even if the goals keep going in.
The manager feels, at worst, it's a minor muscle injury for Vestergaard, but he will be assessed to see if he has to join the list of City starters who are sidelined. Van Nistelrooy is already missing Mads Hermansen, Ricardo Pereira, Wilfred Ndidi, and Abdul Fatawu.
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“We have to assess what happened,” van Nistelrooy said of Vestergaard after the loss at Villa Park. “It could have been a knock, it could have been a minor muscle injury, we’ll have to see later in the week how things are.”
With Hermansen’s groin injury set to keep him out of at least a couple more games, and with Ndidi’s hamstring injury preventing him from returning to training as yet, it does not seem as if any of the other key players will be back for the FA Cup tie against QPR. Ricardo is out until March with his hamstring injury, while Fatawu is out for the season with an ACL tear.
However, Victor Kristiansen is expected to be back. The left-back missed out at Villa through illness, meaning van Nistelrooy had to change his back four for the first time, bringing in Luke Thomas.
Plus, Kasey McAteer is in contention to return. The homegrown winger started each of van Nistelrooy’s first three games in charge but has missed the last four with injury. He returned to partial team training at the end of last week, and so there will be hope he is fit again to be included in the squad to take on QPR.
