Publications
Partners
London - England midfielder Danny Drinkwater is set to miss Leicester City's final three Premier League matches this season with a thigh strain, manager Craig Shakespeare said Thursday.
Drinkwater has been ruled out of the outgoing champions' match away to Manchester City on Saturday and Shakespeare does not expect him to play again for Leicester this campaign.
However, he should still be available for England's World Cup qualifier against Scotland and friendly international against France in June, even though he has withdrawn from the last three squads with injury.
Drinkwater suffered a knock in training last Friday after coming off as a precaution in last week's 3-0 victory at Watford. He is now expected to be out of action for around four weeks.
"Drinkwater has a thigh strain, I don't expect him to play again this season," the manager said Thursday.
"He has had niggles with a hip flexor and this injury is a different complexion. We need to give him time to recover from this.
"He had a scan and it is a grade one (strain). We need to give him time to get over it but it's weeks rather than months."
Drinkwater joins Robert Huth (foot), Nampalys Mendy (ankle) and Wes Morgan (hamstring) on the Foxes' injured list.
"Huth has a foot injury, he didn't train today (Thursday) and went for a scan. We'll get the results this evening but he's a doubt for this Saturday," said Shakespeare.
"Wes is not going to be fit, it's slower than I anticipated and I don't want to rush him. He's the type of player and trainer who has not missed many games and it's taken him longer than he thought.
"If he's ready for the last two games then fine but if not he will not be rushed."
Leicester, having flirted with relegation and sacked title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri, ensured they would remain in the Premier League by beating Watford and could now finish tenth in the table.
"I want to finish as high as possible, the players want to finish as high as possible and to do that we still need that drive and determination," said Shakespeare.
