The defensive midfielder picked up a hamstring injury during the Foxes' league match against Burnley at King Power Stadium

Nigeria and Leicester City have suffered a huge blow after Brendan Rodgers confirmed defensive midfielder Wilfred Ndidi has been ruled out for up to four or five weeks.

The 24-year-old Super Eagle missed the Foxes’ 2-2 Premier League draw against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park Stadium on Sunday because of a hamstring injury he suffered a week before in the 2-2 draw with Burnley.

Though he was suspended for the team’s Europa League trip to face Legia Warsaw in Poland where they lost 1-0, Ndidi could not have featured in the game owing to the injury.

Rodgers has confirmed the injury situation after receiving the results of the scan for the player, who had featured for 31 straight matches in all competitions since February before sustaining the injury against Burnley.

“He did it in the [Burnley] game, which was unfortunate. It could be four to five weeks, so we’ll see how that goes,” Rodgers told BBC Radio Leicester as quoted by Leicestershire Live.

Ahead of the game against Legia Warsaw, Rodgers highlighted the importance of Ndidi and he admitted it was “impossible” for them to find another player to do the job of the former Genk star.

“It’s impossible to find what we have in Wilf," Rodgers said. "We have good players, but specifically the job he does in breaking up the play and defending in the box, he’s irreplaceable, but we have lots of good players.

“You have to find a way. Earlier on in the season, we brought [Boubakary] Soumare into the squad because he gives us that physicality. Wilf’s a fabulous player and hopefully, he’ll be okay for the weekend.”

The injury setback means Ndidi will miss home matches against Manchester United and Arsenal as well as the Europa League matches against Spartak Moscow.

Ndidi, who had already been left out of the Nigeria squad for the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers against the Central African Republic, is now a huge doubt for the next qualifiers scheduled for November.

Apart from the international break in November, Ndidi could also miss top-flight matches against promoted side Brentford and Leeds United.

Source: Goal