World Cup qualification: Ndidi strike for Nigeria & Leicester City as midfielder is out for four weeks

Nigeria and Leicester City have suffered a heavy blow after Brendan Rodgers confirmed defensive midfielder Wilfred Ndidi is out for up to four or five weeks.

The 24-year-old Super Eagle missed the Foxes’ 2-2 draw in the Premier League against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park Stadium on Sunday with a hamstring injury sustained in the 2-2 draw with Burnley a week earlier.

Although he was banned from the team’s Europa League trip against Legia Warsaw in Poland, where they lost 1-0, Ndidi could not have attended the game due to the injury.

Rodgers confirmed the injury situation after receiving the results of the scan for the player, who had played 31 straight games in all competitions since February before sustaining the injury against Burnley.

“He has it in the [Burnley] Game, which was a shame. It could be four to five weeks so we’ll see how that goes, ”Rodgers told BBC Radio Leicester, as quoted by Leicestershire Live.

Ahead of the Legia Warsaw game, Rodgers stressed the importance of Ndidi and admitted that it was “impossible” for her to find another player to take over the former Genk star’s job.

“It’s impossible to find what we have in Wilf,” Rodgers said. “We have good players, but especially his work of interrupting the game and defending in the penalty area is irreplaceable, but we have a lot of good players.”

“You have to find a way. At the beginning of the season we brought with us [Boubakary] Soumare into the squad because he gives us this physicality. Wilf is a fabulous player and hopefully he’ll be fine over the weekend. “

The injury setback means Ndidi will miss home games against Manchester United and Arsenal, as well as Europa League games against Spartak Moscow.

Ndidi, who was already removed from Nigeria’s squad for 2022 World Cup qualifiers against the Central African Republic, is now a big doubt for the next qualifiers, which are scheduled for November.

Aside from the international break in November, Ndidi could also miss top games against newly promoted Brentford and Leeds United.

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