All upcoming World Cup games involving Leicester players
By Ethan Henson
After a thrilling and somewhat unexpected turnaround in their Premier League season, the World Cup break has come at just about the worst time for Leicester City. Brendan Rodgers’ men face a long wait for their return to domestic action, when they welcome high-flying Newcastle United to the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day.
Plenty of City stars have stayed home, with the manager keen to take advantage of the extended break on the training pitch, but there are still a handful of Foxes who are playing straight through. It remains to be seen whether these players will feature upon Premier League return, but here at Foxes of Leicester, we decided to outline the upcoming fixtures featuring those from the King Power club.
Looking out for Leicester City: Wales vs Iran – Friday November 25 – 10am GMT
For many Foxes fans tuning into Wales’ first World Cup match since 1958 on Monday evening, the omission of goalkeeper Danny Ward might have been something of a surprise. The stopper had been something of a regular between the sticks in the last 12 months, but was left out in favour of veteran Wayne Hennessey as the Dragons salvaged a late draw against the United States.
For Welsh fans, however, this would have been less startling, given the commanding and authoritative performance the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper produced in helping his country to the tournament, in that nail-biting victory in the play-off against Ukraine. Hennessey is expected to keep his place, blunders aside, for the rest of the tournament, in spite of Ward featuring in every game during Wales’ EURO 2020 campaign.
Rodgers will be hoping this spell without football does not affect the confidence of his first-choice goalkeeper, whose upturn in performances can be attributed to some newfound belief and self-assurance. The City No. 1 has now kept 6 clean sheets in 8 fixtures, and there is an argument to be made that Ward not playing means he will not make any mistakes, which could be a good thing for the East Midlands side.