Brendan Rodgers described Wesley Fofana as a genuinely top player as the defender returned to training with Leicester City.
The centre-back has not played since fracturing his fibula in a pre-season friendly against Villarreal last August.
Fofana s absence has felt particularly significant in a Leicester season blighted by injuries. Rodgers side have won just seven Premier League games in 2021-22 and conceded 43 goals, with only three sides letting in more in England s top flight.
Leicester also shipped 11 in their Europa League group games as they finished third behind Spartak Moscow and Napoli, dropping into a Europa Conference League play-off against Randers, the second leg of which is on Thursday.
Fofana will certainly not be involved in that game and is unlikely to return for some weeks as Rodgers eases him back into action.
However, the Leicester boss is thrilled to have the 21-year-old back at the training ground.
Look who’s back in training
— Leicester City (@LCFC)
We have to be careful with Wesley, but we ll manage that, he said. He s just joined training, so he s not imminently close to playing. We ll give him a few weeks training with the squad, and then we ll take it from there really.
Just to see him back in training, it really shows what we ve missed. This is a genuine top talent. When you see him come back in, it was like the first day he came in to train when he joined us. It s a different mentality – aggression, anticipation. It s just sheer quality that the boy has.
We ll just build him up and there s no doubt, when he gets back to playing, it will be great to have him back in the team. Throughout his rehabilitation, he s been superb. For a young player, in particular, it s his first real big injury, so it ll be hard for him to be out, but he really focused on his work ever so hard.
It s great to have him back. It s like JJ [James Justin] coming back in [from an ACL injury]. You see the quality of the player that you ve been missing when they re back in the group. That gives the group a boost. He s a genuine top player. When you have that quality, you see the mentality of him.
He s aggressive, he fights for every ball, he’s competitive and then, when he has the ball, he s got big quality. To have that back in your training will always improve the level. It s great for me to see that on its way back into the team.
