NIGERIAN international, Kelechi Iheanacho on Friday night made debut for Leicester City in a 2-1 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach in a pre-season friendly, but he could not last more than 18 minutes due to an injury.
The £25 million striker who joined compatriots Ahmed Musa and Wilfried Ndidi at Leicester from Manchester City came on as a substitute in the 66th minute for Shinji Okazaki.
However, he limped off the pitch in the 74th minute after colliding with Laszlo Benes.
Iheanacho despite the seemingly unpleasant debut, provided an assist in Jamie Vardy’s brace and the match winner before he was forced back to the bench.
The Foxes manager, Craig Shakespeare believes with time, Iheanacho would explode given his potential.
“He’s fine in there. He’s getting a bit of a ribbing from the players in terms of him coming off.
“You can see the impact he’s had. We’re just really making sure that was more of a precaution. He [Iheanacho] hasn’t trained very often, he hasn’t been able to because of circumstance.
“The more minutes he can get on the pitch, the more liable he will be to last 90 minutes,” Shakespeare told LCFC TV.
Shakespeare is however, hopeful that the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup winner and Most Valuable Player will recover from the injury in time for the EPL season’s opener against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Friday.
“I’m still looking to find out, I don’t know whether it is ankle or achilles but he seems fine. The first thing is the physios and they aren’t showing great concern which is a good sign,” said Shakespeare.
Discussion about this post