Leicester City manager, Enzo Maresca has insisted that Nigerian midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi is not expected to return to competitive football anytime soon.
This assertion is contrary to the claims of Wilfred Ndidi who said that he should return to competitive football within the next two weeks.
Recall that Ndidi was one of the players Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro planned to take to the 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast. The defensive midfielder was included in Super Eagles’ 25-man list but the player had to withdraw from the squad due to an injury.
Ndidi had to undergo surgery to treat the injury and has been out of football since December last year.
In a recent interview with Sky Sports, the 27-year-old midfielder said: “The injury’s alright, I’m getting there. It’s two weeks post-surgery.
“Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I’ll be back.”
When he was asked to clarify what the two weeks signify, the Nigerian midfielder said, “A couple of weeks to play.”
Ahead of Leicester City’s FA Cup fourth-round game against Birmingham which ended in an emphatic 3-0 win for coach Maresca earlier today, the manager argued that Ndidi was wrong with his projection.
The 43-year-old Italian tactician stressed that the Nigeria international will stay out of football for more than the weeks the footballer projected.
“He didn’t understand ‘a couple of weeks’, that it means two weeks. It’s not weeks”, the coach said.
“It’s as we said at the beginning, it’s three months, and nothing has changed. But he didn’t understand that couple means two, so this is why he said it.”
Note that the contract between Leicester City and Wilfred Ndidi will expire on June 30, 2024, and there is no sign of a contract extension talks at the time of writing.
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