Leicester City welcome back five players to give Steve Cooper more transfer decisions

Leicester City are back at full strength with their international quintet returning to training at Seagrave.

The five City players who played in the European Championship and Copa America have been given an extended holiday. But on Monday, two weeks after their colleagues returned, preparations began for the new campaign.

It means summer signing Bobby De Cordova-Reid is working alongside his new team-mates for the first time since his free transfer from Fulham. It also allows City boss Steve Cooper to take a closer look at goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, last season’s first-choice centre-back duo of Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard, as well as Victor Kristiansen.

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The left-back is a particularly interesting case at City this summer. He spent last season on loan at Bologna, helping them qualify for the Champions League, after asking to leave because he didn’t like the job Enzo Maresca had planned for him. With Cooper able to use the full-backs more traditionally, rather than inverted like Maresca did, Kristiansen could now have a role to play in the team this season.

Cooper also has decisions to make at centre-back now that Faes and Vestergaard are back. With Conor Coady, Ben Nelson, Harry Souttar and new signing Caleb Okoli also to choose from, Cooper has plenty of options at the heart of the defense and it is likely that one of the six will be moved on. Cooper’s thoughts will be the main factor in who stays and who goes.

“We have the guys coming back from international duty,” Cooper told the club. “It is important that they have had a good few weeks of rest. They needed They get together on Monday and that will be good.”

The quintet are highly unlikely to be involved in City’s first public pre-season game at Shrewsbury on Tuesday night, meaning the young players will continue to fill gaps in the squad. Cooper took development squad talents Brandon Cover, Sammy Braybrooke, Will Alves, Logan Briggs and Silko Thomas with the first team to Evian last week and will be hoping for more chances to stake their claim to the senior ranks for good. .

“We’ve had young players here, which is always important for me and always important for the club,” said Evian’s Cooper. “They’ve had a good practice and a lot of them have had good minutes, so they’re going to come back in a stronger place.”

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