Kelechi and Lookman dropped from Leicester's Europa League game amid Covid-19 scare

NIGERIAN players Kelechi Iheanacho and Ademola Lookman have been dropped from Leicester City's squad that has flown out to Italy for today's Europa League game against Napoli due to a Covid-19 scare.

Leicester City has had seven of its players affected by the virus and as a result has had to leave them out of the trip. Apart from Lookman and Iheanacho, other players affected include Ayoze Perez, Daniel Amartey, Jannik Vestergaard, Filip Benkovic and Vontae Daley-Campbell.

At the moment, Leicester are top of Group C in the competition with eight points from five matches and will be through to the last 16 if they win today's game. This may be difficult now with the large number of absentees, due to a combination of Covid-19 and injuries.

Manager Brendan Rodgers, said: “We’ve had some positive Covid-19 cases and some players are generally not well, so we haven’t taken the risk. We will have seven players unavailable.

In general, you’re starting to see a few more cases and for us, it’s always about the health of our players. We still have a strong squad here but unfortunately it’s not a fully fit squad.”

Midfielder Youri Tielemans and defender Ryan Bertrand are, however, available for selection after recovering from injuries. Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte said eight of his players and five members of staff had tested positive ahead of their Europa League game against French side Stade Rennais, forcing the club to call off the match.