LONDON (Reuters) – Leicester City midfielder Youri Tielemans will be sidelined for as long as six weeks, manager Brendan Rodgers said on Tuesday.
The Belgium international suffered an ankle injury after coming on as a substitute in the weekend defeat by Arsenal and missed Tuesday’s FA Cup loss to Blackburn Rovers.
“Youri will be out for six weeks. Six weeks will feel like six months when you lose a player of that quality,” Rodgers said on a bad night for the Midlands club.
“Sadly he’s done the ligaments in his ankle. He won’t be back before the international break.”
Leicester are only three points above the Premier League relegation zone and the loss of Tielemans comes at a crucial stage of the season for Rodgers.
“We’ve got a really important number of games now and the sole focus is now getting the best team we possibly can out every time we play and look to get the results,” he said.
“If we can have that determination and fight to match some of the quality we have, we will win the games we need to. But it’s going to be a fight for sure.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)