Rodgers On City's Squad Freshness Pre-Everton
- Leicester City start the Christmas schedule with the visit of Everton on Wednesday (6pm kick-off)
- The Foxes will then tackle Tottenham Hotspur (A), Manchester United (H) and Crystal Palace (A)
- Brendan Rodgers confirms James Maddison (knee) is available to face the Toffees this week
- Timothy Castagne (hamstring) will be assessed, while Ricardo Pereira (ACL) and Çağlar Söyüncü (adductor) continue to recover
Everton are the visitors to King Power Stadium on Wednesday (6pm kick-off) before a trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday to tackle José Mourinho's table-toppers (2:15pm kick-off).
On Boxing Day, meanwhile, Manchester United are scheduled to visit Leicester (12:30pm kick-off), before an away clash at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace on Monday 28 December (3pm kick-off).
The Foxes head into that exciting four-game rush currently sitting third in the Premier League table, one point adrift of the summit, despite several injury problems over the early weeks of 2020/21.
Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of Wednesday's encounter with Carlo Ancelotti's Toffees, Rodgers elaborated on some of the players who may, or may not, feature on Filbert Way.
James Maddison remains fit after brushing off a knee issue to net a brace in Sunday's 3-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion, while Timothy Castagne (hamstring) could be in line for a return.
"James should be fine," he confirmed. "On Timothy, we’ll wait and get the go-ahead on that later. If not for this game, we think he’ll be fine for Tottenham and Ricky's (Ricardo Pereira) still a little bit away."
Elsewhere, the Club's medical team are working closely with Turkey centre-back Çağlar Söyüncü to enable him to complete his rehabilitation from an adductor injury sustained earlier this season.
"Çağs is not quite ready yet," the former Liverpool and Celtic manager continued. "He’s training well and coming along well, he’s just getting confidence back, but we don’t want to force that.
"Hopefully, within the next few weeks, he can be back. We’ve had lots of players out, it’s been unfortunate, but the players who have come in have been fantastic for us. We’ll look to try and find a solution in the game."
Despite the hectic nature of Leicester's fixture schedule refusing to relent, even after the conclusion of City's successful UEFA Europa League group stage campaign, Rodgers is excited by the future.
The Northern Irishman says playing up to three games a week is a test only posed to sides with ambitions to succeed, both at home and abroad, and called on his squad to continue relishing the challenge.
"I sold it to the players in pre-season that having qualified for European football, this is what being at the top of the table gives you," he added. "It gives you lots of games but it can certainly improve you as a player."
All times GMT.