Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has provided a major injury update regarding Ricardo Pereira. Rodgers revealed that he has no intentions of calling Ricardo for the remainder of the season.
Portuguese full-back Ricardo Periera damaged his ligaments in the Foxes’ 4-0 thumping of Aston Villa, which was the final game before league’s suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the injury, he underwent knee surgery in March and was ruled out of for the season.
Initially, Rodgers suggested that the right-back will be out for four to six months, which ignited hope among fans that Pereira will be back after the resumption of the Premier League. However, Rodgers revealed that Pereira is not fit for the season and will be on the sidelines for the remainder of the season.
“No, I wouldn’t have thought so. At this moment in time, we’re not looking at that,” Rodgers replied when asked about Pereira’s return.
“He’s working very hard in his rehabilitation, he’s doing very well, but I wouldn’t have thought so at this point.”
Pereira’s back up James Justin will now be City’s first-choice right-back for the remainder of the season. Apart from Justin, Vontae Daley-Campbell and Dennis Gyamfi have also been training with the first team. Leicester City have started contact training earlier last week with two players missing the sessions due to injury – Belvoir Drive and Ricardo Pereira. When asked about the injury update of the rest of the team, Rodgers replied:
“No there’s nothing at this point. There’s still three weeks to go but at this point, nothing.
“Let’s hope it stays like that, touch wood.
“[Setting a date for the Premier League’s resumption] was important for everyone. It’s been a long time that we haven’t been playing, and step by step, stage by stage, we’ve been working our way towards that moment.
“But it was important for the purpose of players, the planning, the logistics, that we got a start date, so thankfully that came out and now we can focus on getting the games underway, which I think will be great for everyone.”
Leicester City were third in the Premier League table before the league’s suspension, four points behind second-placed Manchester City. They will be looking forward to putting pressure on Manchester City once the tournament starts.
