Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca will have Kelechi Iheanacho and Marc Albrighton available to chose from again in a double boost to his squad ahead of Middlesbrough’s visit on Saturday.
Iheanacho has been away at the Africa Cup of Nations since the start of January, with Nigeria finishing as runners-up to Ivory Coast. Albrighton, meanwhile, has missed the Foxes’ lost three through injury. Their returns leave Leicester with only two injury concerns with Wilfred Ndidi out until April and Ben Nelson a doubt.
Even without Nelson though, Maresca’s current options will be the envy of Boro boss Michael Carrick, who has been dealing with a big injury list since as far back as October. Leicester’s Italian boss will have 22 outfield players to choose from, but only 18 places in his match-day squad for them.
“Marc is back,” Maresca confirmed. “He starts to work with us. We’ll see for tomorrow. The only one (fresh injury) is Ben Nelson. He had a kick against Watford and he’s still struggling a little bit. We’ll see for tomorrow. (Iheanacho) is back.
“The good thing is that you can choose. The difficult thing is that some of them are going to be out of the first 11 and out of the squad. That is always not a good thing to do as a manager. At the same time, it’s not good for them to accept that. It is what it is.”
Leicester head into the game looking to extract a little revenge on Boro. Carrick’s side are one of only four teams to beat them this season, with the Foxes well on their way to making an immediate return to the Premier League. Their home form in particular has been central to that, with 13 wins from 16 at the King Power Stadium.
Speaking ahead of the game, the Leicester boss said: “It’s very important for us to be strong at home. It was one of the main things to do for us this season because when you win at home, in front of your people, it creates a good feeling. Last year was not good and even though myself and some of the players were not here then, the mind can still not be good unless you put that right.
“Winning games is important. Hopefully we can give the fans another three points. For us now, every three points we get is another step closer to achieving our final target. But we know we have to be at our top level against Middlesbrough otherwise we will struggle.
“They are a very good team with a very good manager. Last year this did fantastic, this year they have struggled a little bit more because they changed some players. But overall, still a very good team. After their defeat the other day, the manager spoke about their lack of attacking ambition and the game after that one can therefore be a bit tricky for the opposition because the players will want to show that ambition.
“We need to be at our best. We saw that from the first game. We analyse every game after and I always say that sometimes when you don’t win you feel like you should have, and that game was the same. We feel like the result was not good, but the performance was probably one our best of the season.”
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