Wilfred Ndidi is pushing for his first Leicester City start of 2024 at Hull after being declared ready for action.
While Ndidi returned from a two-month lay-off in City’s win at Sunderland on Tuesday, manager Enzo Maresca didn’t intend to use him initially, only turning to the Nigerian when his starting midfielders were tiring. But having had 20 minutes of game-time at the Stadium of Light, he could start for City against Hull on Saturday afternoon.
Maresca was not willing to give the game away as to whether Ndidi would definitely be in his 11 on Humberside. But he has previously stressed the midfielder’s importance, and so he could start in place of Yunus Akgun.
The manager said at his press conference on Friday: “The other day, Wilf was with us just to be with the team. The idea was not to give him any minutes.
“But because of the situation, because of the game, because Yunus (Akgun) was so tired, and because in this moment we need to win games, he did an unbelievable effort to play 20 minutes. Now he’s ready to play, but we’ll see if he’s going to play from the start or if he will be on the bench.”
There could be further changes to the team, with Maresca potentially reversing many of those he has made over recent weeks. Jannik Vestergaard is available again after serving a two-match suspension and may come back in for Conor Coady, despite his good performance at Sunderland.
Maresca said: “It’s always difficult, not only now because Conor played, we won and we kept a clean sheet. Also in the past it was difficult to leave him out because he’s an important player. This weekend, Jannik is back. We’ve also had many clean sheets with Jannik. The most important thing is that all of them are available and we can choose.”
