Missing players and youngsters involved – six things spotted as Leicester City start pre-season

Leicester City’s pre-season is officially under way as players returned to the club’s Seagrave training base on Monday. On the first day of what will be a busy six weeks leading up the opening Premier League fixture against Brentford, here is what we spotted.

As expected, the first group back were those who were not called up to represent their countries in early June, but that did not mean there was a shortage of big names. James Maddison, Jamie Vardy, Harvey Barnes, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Ricardo Pereira, Marc Albrighton, Hamza Choudhury, Ayoze Perez, and Boubakary Soumare were all there among the senior contingent.

Of those not on international duty, Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho were the two not present, although they attended the wedding of a friend over the weekend. The Nigerian pair should be back in training soon, while the international players will have staggered arrival dates over the next few weeks.

There was one international player present at Seagrave in goalkeeper Daniel Iversen. Despite representing Denmark at the start of the month – Iversen an unused substitute as back-up to Kasper Schmeichel for their four Nations League games – he is already back in for training.

The final of those Denmark games was against Austria just two weeks ago, so it’s been a short break for the goalkeeper. However, he did get time off earlier in May with the Championship season finishing earlier than the Premier League campaign, Iversen having been on loan at Preston.

With an incomplete first-team squad returning, there were plenty of City youngsters filling out the group at Seagrave. Many of those were expected to be involved, including those that spent periods out on loan last season.

Manager Brendan Rodgers was