Sky Sports contributor Ben Dinnery has claimed that James Maddison will be available for Leicester City’s Boxing Day clash with Newcastle United.
Manager Brendan Rodgers claims that the player has had ‘ongoing’ knee issues. Maddison was called up to England’s World Cup squad but didn’t play a single game for the Three Lions.
The Foxes played against MK Dons in the Carabao and won 3-0 away from home, the midfielder didn’t feature in the squad for that match.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Dinnery said there was ‘nothing to worry about’ as far as the injury is concerned and that he would ‘expect him to be in the matchday squad’ against Newcastle.
He stated (2:56), “They [Leicester City] progressed to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup without too much problems. Although the foxes were without James Maddison, nothing to worry about with regards to that. Brendan Rodgers said that he was still working his way back to full fitness lacks a little bit of sharpness. We know you went out to Qatar with that problem. He missed a lot of the sessions with England, and therefore he’s just go back he’s had a little bit of extra time. He’s just going to be working on his fitness but suffice to say I would expect him to be in the matchday squad that takes on Newcastle on Boxing Day.”
TIF’s view on Dinnery’s comments…
We believe that having Maddison in the squad to face Newcastle would be an incredible lift for Leicester, he’s been such an important player for them this season.
However, there has been plenty of talk that the player will be leaving the club in the near future, GiveMeSport claim that Maddison will leave Leicester in 2023 and Newcastle is confident they can bring him to Tyneside.
The 26-year-old has provided 11 goal contributions from 14 Premier League appearances, Maddison also has the highest average rating on Sofascore of any Foxes’ player standing at 7.52. It’s no wonder that the Magpies want to bring him to north east.
The only upside is that Leicester would get a massive fee to let go of the player, last summer they rejected a fee of over £40 million from Newcastle. The cash generated could be used to improve the Foxes’ starting eleven and the depth of their squad.