Leicester City trio return as star man tipped to reach 'even greater level' in the new season

Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana has started his preparations for the new campaign in which he has been backed to reach "an even greater level".

The centre-back returned from his summer break on Monday and was welcomed back to the club's Seagrave base alongside strikers Kelechi Iheanacho and Patson Daka, the trio undergoing fitness tests on their first day of pre-season training. Their return marks the start of City gradually reintroducing their international stars to training, with the rest of the players’ arrivals staggered over the next couple of weeks.

Fofana and Daka were two of the City players who represented their countries in early June. Fofana played in two victories for France Under-21s in their European Championship qualifiers, but then was excused from their third game, the centre-back leaving the squad to get married. Daka played in two Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers for Zambia, scoring once as they lost to Ivory Coast and then beat Comoros.

Iheanacho was the sole non-international player who did not return to Seagrave last week. But it was understood he was given extra time off before coming back in on Monday.

It it set to be a big season for Fofana, who missed the majority of last term following his leg break in the final friendly of last summer, at home to Villarreal. The Frenchman did return to play 11 games from March onwards, producing some excellent performances, notably away at Rennes and PSV Eindhoven.

When Fofana first made his comeback, Rodgers said his first few months would be about maintaining fitness before he kicked on during the 2022-23 campaign. The manager predicts he will be better than ever.

Rodgers said in March: “Come pre-season, he can have a really strong pre-season,