Jamie Vardy injury update as Leicester City set to welcome back players for Crystal Palace clash

Leicester City are hoping Jamie Vardy responds well to an injection next week as they try to get to the bottom of his knee injury.

The City striker has been missing for more than a month after suffering the problem in the 1-0 win over Leeds, which remains his only start this calendar year. While Vardy can run, he has pain in his MCL when he strikes a ball, and manager Brendan Rodgers has been reluctant to put a timescale on his return, prompting fears he could miss a significant chunk of the run-in.

City are now playing a waiting game, and will have to see how his knee responds to an injection before deciding the next step, or potentially welcoming him back into the squad.

“Jamie won’t be back,” Rodgers said at his press conference on Friday afternoon, previewing his side’s home clash with Crystal Palace. “He’s got a final injection on Tuesday and we’ll see what the reaction is to that.

“He can do a lot of fitness work but he’s not quite there on kicking the ball. We're hoping we get positive news on that.”

While City will not have Vardy back in their squad to face the Eagles, they will have a few players returning. Papy Mendy is eligible again now City are back in Premier League action, while Caglar Soyuncu should be back after illness, the Turk one of three senior players to surprisingly miss out on PSV, along with Ayoze Perez and Boubakary Soumare.

Rodgers said: “Papy Mendy will come back into the squad, which is good. Soyuncu will come back in as well. Apart from that, it’s pretty much the same squad.

“We’ll see (on Perez). He’s just out this afternoon. He’s felt rough for a few days so he’s out doing a session with the conditioning coaches. We’ll assess that tomorrow.

“He (Soumare) trained today. He had a soreness