Leicester City injury updates: Fofana, Justin, Albrighton

Leicester City’s injury woes look to be reducing with a few absent stars on the horizon. Here are the updates on each player and when they might be back.

Brendan Rodgers’ King Power side have been without a full strength and quality squad for quite a while now. Ever since the 20/21 season where Harvey Barnes, James Maddison, and James Justin were injured around the same time, the team has struggled to get everyone back.

Even now, the Foxes have lost Youri Tielemans to injury and only just seen the early return of Wilfred Ndidi. Clearly we are still some way off getting the squad back together, but there is encouraging news.

Leicester City’s French wonderkid

After a horrific leg-breaking injury sustained during pre-season, Wesley Fofana has been side-lined. However, the young defender has given his all to his recovery and Rodgers has recently spoken of the players potential return.

As per LeicestershireLive:

"“He has devoted everything to his recovery. He is looking very strong, so hopefully not long after the Christmas period he could be back”"

Though our Little Wes is not yet back, the wonderkid is on the horizon much sooner than anticipated. Originally, we were looking late February 2022 for his initial return, so to be so ahead of schedule is truly terrific.

I expect he will feature from the bench in a few matches or for the U23 side before returning to senior first team action. Perhaps Little Wes has other ideas if his recent social media posts are anything to go by:

Foxes’ missing cog

Few injuries affect a team as much as the loss of Justin. The English fullback was performing a stellar season combining with Barnes on the left wing before his ACL injury in February.

The player has already returned to on-pitch training, though is perhaps still a while away from being physically ready and strong enough to return to the intensive Premier League. As with Fofana, the gaffer has commented on his return.

As per LeicestershireLive:

"“He’s been working so hard, mornings into evenings, he’s giving everything to get back. There’s maybe another four to five weeks we would say”"

Though this would suggest multiple weeks, I would expect this is the timeframe for returning to action for the senior first team. As the defender has returned to non-contact training, we can expect the player to be given some minutes either with the U23s or occasional appearances late in November or early December for the senior side.

When Justin returns, he will allow Rodgers to reform his favoured side and system which we saw work so well in the first half of the 20/21 season before the injuries. That will be an exciting Christmas present.

The legendary winger

Marc Albrighton was injured recently during what should have been a red card challenge on him. Nevertheless, he is on the mend and might return to action later this month. Luckily the injury did not completely ruin his year.

We could expect the English winger to make a return from the bench against Chelsea on 20th November, but I would personally suggest the match after that when match sharpness is a little less critical to winning.

‘Sharky’ is a really important player for the Foxes. As the player is versatile and defensively aware, he offers a different option to a Barnes or Ademola Lookman type of player. When Albrighton makes his return, I still expect ‘Ade’ to be ahead of him, but it will be great to see him feature again.

A quick piece on Youri Tielemans. The Belgian Starman is out for at least three weeks with this injury, which will see him out of the Premier League match against Chelsea. One can only expect to see him reintegrated into the squad very quickly.