The full-back might return to the squad on Tuesday night against the Saints in place of Hamza Choudhury after not playing in Saturday’s triumph over West Brom.
Tuesday night, after receiving a break over the weekend, is anticipated to see Ricardo Pereira rejoin the Leicester City starting lineup.
Hamza Choudhury took Ricardo’s place and heroically made three goal-line blocks to secure the three points in the 2-1 victory over West Brom. Ricardo was not deployed as a substitute. It was never going to be sufficient, though, if Ricardo remained fit.
The Portuguese player was not only rested for City’s victory over the Baggies, but also for an entire training week. This came the week after he had only recently returned from a month-long injury layoff and had played ninety minutes three times in seven days the previous week.
“Ricky was on the bench and could be available for Tuesday,” Southampton manager Enzo Maresca said, indicating that he will be OK to play. He wasn’t with us on Friday and didn’t train with us the entire week. After our conversation, I realized that every player matters at this point in the season, even if they just play for five or ten minutes. I told him he may accompany us inside should the necessity arise. However,
“Hamza is fully aware of his job. In Harry Winks’ place, he occasionally played as a six while Harry wasn’t playing. When Ricky was not around, he played there most of the time. And he always performed admirably. However, Ricky is mostly to blame for where we are at right now.
A 72-hour turnaround from the weekend may force Maresca to make a few changes, even though City will have almost a full week to recuperate before playing their penultimate game in Preston. There might be a change up front, with Patson Daka, Tom Cannon, and Kelechi Iheanacho available for Maresca to select from. Jamie Vardy seldom starts two games in a row.
