LEICESTER, ENGLAND - JUNE 21 : Leicester City unveil the new manager Steve Cooper at the King Power Stadium on June 21, 2024 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Jamie Vardy and Conor Coady will miss Leicester City’s Premier League opener against Tottenham in a hammer blow to manager Steve Cooper.
Vardy has been absent since picking up a knock in the first pre-season outing against Villarreal and has still not returned to training. After City’s final friendly of the summer, a concerning 3-0 loss to Lens, Cooper confirmed he would not be in contention to face Spurs.
Coady, meanwhile, limped out of the open training session at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday and has now been ruled out for a month. The former England international has captained City in some of their pre-season outings and looked like he would be a key player for Cooper.
In further bad news, Patson Daka was substituted in the first half of the defeat to Lens after the home side’s defender Kevin Danso landed on the Zambian’s leg. He left the Stade Bollaert-Delelis wearing a protective boot ahead of an assessment, and will likely be ruled out of next Monday’s opener too.
In that case, City have just Tom Cannon as their only senior striking option. Albeit, Cooper chose not to bring on Cannon as a direct replacement for Daka, instead using Stephy Mavididi up front before bringing on the Republic of Ireland international late in the game.
“We’ll see how Patson is,” Cooper told BBC Radio Leicester after the 3-0 defeat. “He’s in a boot at the moment. Conor’s going to be out for at least a month.
“Vards is still rehab-ing. He’s not back yet with the team and I think it will be a little while until that is the case. So we’re planning without those guys at the moment.”
The injuries are just one of a number of problems for Cooper ahead of the Tottenham game. City were second-best throughout their defeat to Lens on Saturday, with the shot count finishing 17-2 in favour of the French side, who dominated possession and pressed City into giving it away constantly.
Cooper did not try to sugarcoat the display. The only positive he took was that it gave his players a taste of how difficult the Premier League will be.
“It was a tough day,” Cooper said. “It was the challenge we needed. In terms of the performance, there was nothing good about our in-possession game. There was no doubt about that. The game demanded a much more intense in-possession game than what we gave.
“We wanted to play calm and they didn’t allow us to do that. But when that’s the case, you have to be good enough to play quicker and to find spaces quicker. That fell short.
