Leicester midfielder Nampalys Mendy also injured during West Ham game
Wednesday 22 January 2020 23:19, UK
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has allayed fears over striker Jamie Vardy's injury sustained in City's 4-1 thumping of West Ham at the King Power Stadium.
Leading 1-0 on the back of Harvey Barnes' 23rd-minute tap-in, Vardy's hoofed clearance resulted in him pulling up with what initially appeared to be a hamstring problem but was later confirmed to be an injury to his glute muscles (buttocks).
Despite attempting to come back onto the pitch and continue playing after treatment, the 33-year-old soon crumpled back to the ground and was replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho.
Vardy at least watched the second half from the bench, with Rodgers delivering a positive prognosis.
"It wasn't his hamstring, so that's good news for us," said Rodgers.
"He just felt a twinge in his glute, so we will wait and see on that one in the next day or so, but thankfully his hamstring is fine, and we'll assess things over the next couple of days."
Despite the injury blows, Rodgers' side returned to winning ways with an emphatic victory to maintain their stranglehold on third place in the Premier League, and with it keep one eye on a Champions League place for next season.
After losing Vardy, Ricardo doubled City's lead on the stroke of half-time with a sumptuous strike and, although West Ham captain Mark Noble pulled one back from the penalty spot early in the second half, a double from Ayoze Perez in the final 10 minutes wrapped up a deserved win to erase memories of recent back-to-back defeats to Southampton and Leicester.
The result also proved City can operate without Vardy.
Rodgers added: "He's a fantastic player and very, very important for us, but you are never going to succeed or do well if you just rely totally on one player.
"Of course, when you have a player of his quality, he is always going to be a miss, so it's particularly important to have players who can come into a game and you don't change so much of your rhythm.
"Kelechi came in and he was very, very good. He wants to run in behind, he was powerful, his touch was good, he works ever so hard, and he always looks like he can create and score goals. I thought he came in and did very well.
"Overall, I thought the performance was very, very good. From the first whistle we played with a high tempo, the speed in our game was good, the creativity was good. We thoroughly deserved it, so really pleased."
Rodgers also lost midfielder Nampalys Mendy to a knee injury just after the half-hour during his side's big win over West Ham.
The Frenchman was replaced by Wilfred Ndidi, who was back in the matchday squad after recovering from knee surgery in double-quick time.
