Wilfred Ndidi, a Nigerian international, will miss the rest of the Premier League season, Leicester City, boss Brendan Rodgers, has said.
The midfielder who missed Nigeria’s World Cup playoff decider against Ghana, was expected to sit out the Foxes’ run-in after suffering a knee injury in the Europa Conference League win in Rennes this month.
He has now had surgery and is not due back until pre-season in the summer.
“He’ll be out for the season which is a shame for us. He picked up a nasty injury which he had to have surgery on and he’ll recover for June,” Rodgers said.
“He’ll get ready for next season. It’s a bit unfortunate, he’s been a brilliant player for me in my time here. On the other side, Papy Mendy has come in and been great.
“We thought he was leaving in the summer, he wasn’t in the squad and then hardly played in the first half of the season. He has always been a brilliant professional and we gain a player in him.”
Jonny Evans is fit for Saturday’s trip to former club Manchester United after a hamstring issue, along with Marc Albrighton.
Luke Thomas is expected to miss out with a hamstring injury while Jamie Vardy (knee) and Danny Ward (knee) are unavailable.
Leicester’s injuries this season have helped Rodgers change his mind on the introduction of extra substitutes and from next season clubs will be allowed to use five, the Premier League has announced.
He added: “Certainly having experienced it I would be very much in favour of it. In the beginning I was one of the ones who was saying ‘let’s stay with three and see where we’re at and taking a look at it’.
“Having looked at it over the course of the season, primarily for the health of the players, the five substitutions would work much better.
“In European football having been able to make five has allowed us to take off players who were maybe suffering.
“Especially in a season like it’s been for us this year I would have loved to have had an extra couple of subs to help a player recover