Brendan Rodgers believes Dennis Praet can do the job in James Maddison’s absence

Brendan Rodgers believes summer signing Dennis Praet can do the job in James Maddison’s absence as Leicester City face Newcastle United on Sunday.

The 22-year old sustained an ankle injury in the latter moments of his side’s 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur last week – which he netted an orgasmic winner in.

While he is back in training already, he is a doubt for tomorrow’s Premier League clash against the Magpies, Rodgers has confirmed.

Considering his form, it does feel like a blow-and-a-half, and more so when you take into account that Leicester haven’t beaten Newcastle at home in the last two seasons – they’ve lost twice, in fact.

Rodgers, however, is not worried at all as he has got full faith in Praet, who was excellent in the 4-0 thumping of Luton Town in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

"“We’ve got Dennis Praet, who was terrific in the game in the week,” Rodgers said.“He’s a really talented player. We’ve got other players we could put into there too.“Praet’s technically very strong, so he can take the ball and he allows you to maintain the ball. He wants to play forward, he runs forward, he wants to score goals. He understands football, which helps a lot as well.“And he wants to press – he’s a really hard worker. You need midfield players to work hard. Dennis brings that as well as his quality.”"

Praet has only started two games for Leicester so far, one against Sheffield United and one against Luton.

In both the games, he has done more than enough to suggest that he can play at the same level in England as he did in the Serie A with Sampdoria and the Jupiler Pro League with Anderlecht.

If he does indeed start at the King Power Stadium this weekend, though, then it will be the first time that he is expected to go out there and put in a solid display, seeing as he will be coming in for someone as important and crucial as Maddison.

No pressure on the 25-year old, then, is there?