The Leicester midfielder N’Golo Kanté will miss this week’s matches against West Bromwich Albion and Watford with a hamstring injury, according to his manager Claudio Ranieri.
Kanté was substituted after 70 minutes of Saturday’s win over Norwich with a problem Ranieri described at the time as “nothing serious”, but it will be enough to rule him out of Tuesday night’s home game and the visit to Vicarage Road on Saturday.
“We lose him for the next two matches,” Ranieri said. “I hope only two. It’s a little painful, he suffered during all of the season and now we want to give him some rest. Two matches and he can restart.
“All the season he had a problem with the other leg and now this time the new leg. Maybe he made a compensation and charged too much on the other leg.”
Andy King is likely to replace Kanté alongside Danny Drinkwater in midfield, and Ranieri was pleased with 27-year-old’s substitute appearance against Norwich.
“We put King on and he plays very well with Drinkwater,” Ranieri said. “I’m very confident in him.”
Nonetheless, the loss of Kanté, who has been a revelation since arriving from Caen last summer, will be a blow to the league leaders – who would go five points clear at the top, for 24 hours at least, with victory over Tony Pulis’s side.
