Leicester City suffer Jamie Vardy injury blow ahead of PSV Eindhoven clash

Jamie Vardy still has pain in his knee and is not close to a return to the Leicester City line-up.

The talisman striker has been dealing with a knee problem since the 1-0 win over Leeds, just his second game back from a long hamstring issue. But while it was expected he would now be closer to a comeback, manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed he still has pain in his MCL.

The 35-year-old has been out on the training pitches at Seagrave and has been running, but he’s not able to strike a ball properly. The medical team will be tasked with getting to the bottom of the issue.

“He’s not available,” Rodgers said on Vardy ahead of the Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg against PSV Eindhoven on Thursday evening. “It’s hard to put a timeline on it. He can still feel pain in the knee. But it’s just when he’s striking the ball there is an issue, so we have to try to get to the bottom of that.

“I just had a quick chat with Jamie, he’d been outside and he’d been running in straight lines, but when he was opening up the MCL, when he was striking the ball, he had a little bit of pain in that.

“I’ll have to speak with the medical team to see where that’s at. It doesn’t sound as if he’s too close to being back.”

City do have one player back available though with Luke Thomas able to return to the squad after a hamstring issue suffered on international duty with England Under-21s kept him out of the draw with Manchester United.

Meanwhile, there will be five players out of the game, Vardy joining injured trio Wilfred Ndidi, Ryan Bertrand and Danny Ward on the sidelines. Papy Mendy is ineligible as he is not registered in the Europa League squad.