Leicester City team news v Aston Villa: Jamie Vardy on bench as four changes made

Jamie Vardy is on the bench for Leicester City as Brendan Rodgers makes four changes for the Premier League clash with Aston Villa.

Vardy has been out with a knee problem for more than a month but after overcoming pain he returns to the squad at the King Power Stadium. It is expected that he will get minutes in the second half, in what will be just his third appearance of 2022.

Rodgers has rotated heavily between matches over the past few weeks but with plenty of time to recover before Thursday’s semi-final first leg against Roma, he has only made a handful of changes this time. James Justin, Caglar Soyuncu, Ademola Lookman, and Patson Daka are the quartet to come in, with Ricardo Pereira, Jonny Evans, Harvey Barnes, and Kelechi Iheanacho dropping out.

That means that Wesley Fofana and Timothy Castagne retain their places in the backline, with Rodgers choosing not to rotate his whole back four for the first game in a few weeks. The midfield is completely unchanged, with Papy Mendy, Youri Tielemans, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall forming the midfield three.

James Maddison starts again on the right, but he will be linking up with two new faces in attacking areas, with Daka and Lookman coming in. As well as Vardy, City can turn to Iheanacho, Barnes, and Ayoze Perez for attacking options late in the game.

Schmeichel; Justin, Fofana, Soyuncu, Castagne; Mendy; Maddison, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Lookman; Daka. Ward, Amartey, Ricardo, Choudhury, Albrighton, Barnes, Perez, Iheanacho, Vardy.