Leicester City notebook as Newcastle and Chelsea exit strategy aims to boost Foxes prospects

Pain game… First-team physio Gary Silk and head of medicine Simon Morris are to have their department strengthened

Given that their fall from Champions League contention in 2020 and 2021 was partly due to player unavailability, everybody at Leicester City should know how important injury prevention is.

They’ve not been without issues this season either, but thankfully they’ve maintained a level of fitness across the squad that has meant Enzo Maresca has never been left disastrously short of options. If Jannik Vestergaard and Marc Albrighton return to fitness against Sheffield Wednesday, City will only have one player in Wilfred Ndidi out through injury.

But that doesn’t mean the medical department can’t get stronger. City are doing just that, but they will get weaker first.

Over the past month, City have seen a host of changes behind the scenes, Training Ground Guru reports. Two of their first-team physios are leaving, with Jonny King joining Newcastle and Ed Richmond heading to Chelsea. Plus, head academy physio Dan Dagia is leaving for Aston Villa Women.

But not only have City advertised for all of those positions to be refilled, they are now looking for a new head physio too. The job, which is open for applications until the end of the month, will take City’s tally of first-team physios up to four.

The hope will be that City then keep players fitter for longer and reduce the number of days missed through injury. Ensuring player availability is certainly making a difference this season.

Ricardo Pereira, who has had real trouble with injuries over the past few years, only needs to play 626 more minutes this term, the equivalent of seven more matches, and he will have featured more often this campaign than in all of the previous three combined. For James Justin, eight more games will mean he has played more often than in the last two seasons combined.

It’s not just in the physio department where City are strengthening, but in their recruitment team too. They recently advertised for an emerging talent identifier, focusing on players aged 17 to 21, and are still in the process of bringing in a new first-team technical scout.

Promotion without winning another game

In any other season, City would have one foot in the Premier League. Sitting on 75 points after 31 games, they are 15 points shy of a total that has previously guaranteed promotion.

Since the Championship’s rebrand 20 years, 90 points has always earned a spot in the top two. Unbelievably, that’s a total City can reach without winning another match, with 15 draws from their remaining 15 matches getting them there.

However, this is very likely to be the first season where 90 points isn’t good enough. There are currently four teams tracking to get more than that, with Southampton, Leeds, and Ipswich joining City in the automatic promotion hunt, and so Enzo Maresca’s men probably do need a few more victories yet.

Battle of City academy in Africa

From a City perspective, the focus of Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final was Kelechi Iheanacho and whether the striker could repeat his semi-final impact in the showpiece match. But there were other City links too.

There was former loanee Ademola Lookman in the starting line-up for Nigeria, and there were a pair of academy graduates facing off too. Calvin Bassey, now of Fulham, was in the Nigeria back-line, while Max Gradel started for eventual victors Ivory Coast, with both of the pair coming through City’s youth system.

Glory for Gradel, who is now 36 and plays his club football with Turkish side Gaziantep, means he is one of just two Ivorians to have now been an African champion twice, also featuring in the victorious 2015 squad. Galatasaray’s Serge Aurier is the other.