Leicester City suffer huge potential coronavirus blow
Leicester City could be hit a huge blow ahead of their Premier League opener at West Brom as three of their players require testing for coronavirus.
Youri Tielemans, Timothy Castagne and Dennis Praet are all on international duty for Belgium for their Nations League fixtures against Denmark and Iceland. After defeating their Leicester City team-mate Kasper Schmeichel and Denmark 2-0 on Saturday, the Red Devils have been hit with a huge downfall.
Brandon Mechele, who is part of the squad, has tested positive for coronavirus and left the group. That development was announced on Monday evening. Mechele, who plays for Club Brugge, was an unused substitute for the victory on Saturday.
The Belgium Twitter account announced this morning that all players and staff will be retested today. There is no clear indication on what will happen with their game against Iceland, but what is clear, is that it could affect Leicester more than anyone.
The Foxes have three players in Roberto Martinez’s squad, joint most with Borussia Dortmund and Anderlecht. Tielemans, Castagne and Praet all featured for the Red Devils on Saturday, with Tielemans and Castagne set to retain their place in the starting line-up.
Leicester’s squad is already down to the bare bones and the loss of all three of these players could cause a disaster for Brendan Rodgers.
With Mechele’s positive test and the retesting occurring, if any of the three players have their test return positive, the Northern Irishman’s plan for Sunday might have to be altered.
Rodgers already has a water-thin squad ahead of the trip to West Brom and with the possibility of being without his three Belgium players, it could be a very lacklustre line-up.
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It isn’t just the West Brom game that will be affected. With the self-isolation period being 14 days, all three will be unavailable for the home game with Burnley next weekend. The repercussions on any positive test could potentially cause huge consequence for Leicester’s start to the season and even the how they fare for the remainder.