Rodgers: Ricardo, Söyüncü & Ndidi In Contention On Thursday

- Ricardo Pereira, Çağlar Söyüncü and Wilfred Ndidi are in line to return from injury for Leicester City
- The Foxes face Ukrainian outfit Zorya Luhansk at Slavutych Arena on Thursday (5:55pm kick-off)
- Portugal international Ricardo has been absent with an ACL injury since March
- Söyüncü and Ndidi could also make comebacks after suffering from adductor injuries

While Portugal full-back Ricardo has undergone rehabilitation after an ACL injury in March, adductor issues have kept Turkey centre-back Söyüncü and Nigeria midfielder Ndidi on the sidelines also.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's visit to Slavutych Arena on matchday five in the Europa League, a 5:55pm kick-off, Rodgers confirmed that already-qualified City will be boosted by their returns in Ukraine.

"I can’t wait," the Northern Irishman said in Zaporizhzhia. "The players, up until now, have done amazing to sit where we are after 10 games and, at this early stage of the Europa League, we’re qualified.

"It’s a huge testament to the guys that have performed. However, to have this level of player coming back, especially from a defensive side, it can just get us back working to how we want to work.

"We’ve had to adapt during this early period of the season, in terms of our style and identity at times, but to get those players back, with their level of mobility and quality is really going to help us.

"It’ll make the squad super competitive when they do (return from injury and play regularly), so we’re really looking forward to seeing the three boys play tomorrow.

"Hopefully they get through as much of the game as they can and the likes of Timothy Castagne (hamstring) are not too far away too.

"Daniel Amartey’s (hamstring) a little bit away, but he's progressing really well. It gives us a really exciting squad."

With Kasper Schmeichel, Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy remaining in the United Kingdom, in order to recuperate, Rodgers was pleased to offer places to some of the Club's youngsters.

As a result, the travelling party includes members of the Development Squad, who have been impressive for Leicester's Under-23s side this season, as part of their continued education in the game.

"They are some of our young players who have been featuring in the Under-23s team," Rodgers explained. "We’ve had a lot of these young players train with us.

"We’ve had it before in this game (vs. Zorya Luhansk) when we played at home, we had some of the young players on the bench, but we’ll evaluate them when they’re out.

"We’ll look at the squad and most of them will be there on the bench and we’ll see if we can get them on.

"Obviously, we’re playing our three senior players tomorrow and they will come off in the game and, if we have a chance to put on any of the youngsters, we’ll look at doing that."

All times GMT.