With Enzo Maresca missing nine international matches this week, Conor Coady’s expected return to training the following week will be a significant milestone in his recuperation from a broken foot.
Conor Coady is close to joining the Leicester City training group, which will comprise 17 players during the international break.
Out with a broken foot since July, Coady is on schedule to be available for selection by the end of September, with the next step a return to training. He is due to be back on the grass with his team-mates next week.
Maresca stated about Coady last week that “he’s very close” and that “after the international break he can probably finally join us in the sessions and day by day.” Truthfully, he has been enormous. He’s been with us practically every day and has attended every home and away game, so he’s demonstrated his leadership and team-building skills in full. He is constantly present. It’s amazing.
Only three players are now out due to injury, with Dennis Praet out until the end of November due to a major back problem and Alex Smithies also unable to participate. However, there are a lot of other players who are out for the upcoming week.
Nine City players are currently representing their country in a number of friendlies, qualifications for the Africa Cup of Nations, and European Championships. They are Harry Souttar (Australia), Wout Faes (Belgium), Wout Ward (Wales), Callum Doyle (England Under-21s), Cesare Casadei (Italy Under-21s), Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho (both Nigeria), Patson Daka (Zambia), and Mads Hermansen (Denmark).
This leaves Maresca with a squad of 15 healthy outfielders to work with during the international break, though they won’t be getting started right away. The boss is giving them a break first.
He said after the 1-0 loss to Hull: “We have played seven games in a very short time, so now it’s important that we recover all of them, the energy, so we start again in the right way. We have some days off because they deserve it. Not because of the results, simply because they never stopped in the last period.”
The 17 players available to Maresca for the next week are Jakub Stolarczyk, Daniel Iversen, Jannik Vestergaard, James Justin, Ben Nelson, Ricardo Pereira, Hamza Choudhury, Harry Winks, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Marc Albrighton, Yunus Akgun, Abdul Fatawu, Wanya Marcal, Stephy Mavididi, Kasey McAteer, Jamie Vardy, and Tom Cannon.
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