JibrinLeicester City manager Gary Rowett confesses his squad is enduring a nightmare spell with injuries.
The Foxes haven’t tasted victory since January 10, and Rowett faces an almighty battle to keep the club in the Championship following his appointment this month.
They currently languish in 22nd spot, just one point from safety.
“The squad is where it is,” Rowett said ahead of the game against Middlesbrough. “We’ve got big, key players out that make a huge issue. We lost two more yesterday (Friday), Abdul (Fatawu) and also Jordan (Ayew), in the middle of our last preparations, which obviously doesn’t help.
“It’d be nice to get some of those back. I don’t know whether Abdul and Jordan will be back for Tuesday, hopefully so, fingers crossed.”
Victor Kristiansen was forced off in the first half during the draw with Stoke City on Saturday, and on the Danish defender’s injury, Rowett said: “With Victor today, it leaves us short again in an area. At the moment, I think we’ve got two fit centre-halves, one fit left-back and clearly we need a bit of fortune to get through some of these games before players come back.
“It just means it’s hard to change some of those moments, to be able to manage games in certain ways. You can’t wave a magic wand and suddenly create a solution for everything. That’s going to take a little bit of time to get players back.
“That’s going to mean having a slightly more mature, stronger bench. We’ve got some great young players who have worked really hard in training and have been impressive.
“But sometimes, when you’re under pressure at this stage of the season, you want some calmer heads who have done it before and that ability to change. We’re not going to solve it overnight.”
Jannik Vestergaard, Harry Souttar, Jamaal Lascelles and Hamza Choudhury, Jordan James and Aaron Ramsey have also been sidelined of late.
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