Leicester City galvanised for run-in as year-long injury wait ends against Manchester United

Brendan Rodgers believes Leicester City will be galvanised for the run-in after the club’s year-long wait for a fit set of defenders finally ended.

Provided there are no injuries during the international break, Rodgers will have nine of his 10 senior defenders available to choose from for the fixture against Manchester United, with only Ryan Bertrand unavailable. Not since last April have the club’s top four centre-backs – Jonny Evans, Wesley Fofana, Caglar Soyuncu, and Daniel Amartey – been fit at the same time, while their leading four full-backs – Timothy Castagne, Ricardo Pereira, James Justin, and Luke Thomas – are all available for the first time since last January.

Fofana, Castagne, and Evans are the trio who have made their long-awaited comebacks within the last week, and Rodgers believes that because they have played such little football, their returns will have a re-energising effect on the squad, especially as others can now be afforded more rests. City have plenty to play for when the action resumes in a fortnight’s time, as they battle for glory in the Europa Conference League, but also eye a late push for the European spots in the Premier League, hoping to use their games in hand to their advantage.

“It’s much better,” Rodgers said after the 2-1 win over Brentford. “I’ve always said we’ve got a really good squad that allows us to compete when they’re available, and for a lot of the season they haven’t been. They’re starting to come back slowly now. It was great for Timothy an hour or so, it was a great goal, JJ got 90 minutes, and the likes of Jonny coming in and getting 20 odd minutes or so. It’s good. Wesley we’re looking after him as well.

“It will galvanise the group as well because these guys haven’t