De Laet Glad To Be Back

The former Manchester United man has had to wait patiently on the sidelines since the start of October as he recovered from a shin injury that kept him out for a total of nine matches.

But the 25-year-old showed that he is well on the way to returning to full fitness with an impressive display against the Clarets, who went into the match at the top of the Sky Bet Championship table.

He told Foxes Player: “It was really good to get back on the pitch and get some minutes under my belt. After about 60 minutes I was feeling it a little bit and we felt it was best for the team to get some fresh legs on.

“It’s been difficult [being out]. Basically I cracked my shin and I needed an operation, but I had no pain, which was the annoying thing. There was no pain but I couldn’t do anything, so I just had to wait for it to heal.

“I couldn’t be there at the away games when I wasn’t playing. But looking at the TV and watching the lads win and coming into training with everyone happy is great. It’s just good to be back involved and helping to try to get some wins now.”

David Nugent put the Foxes ahead from the penalty spot on Saturday, but Danny Ings scored in the second half to rescue a point for Burnley – however for De Laet it was a case of two points dropped after a brilliant performance.

“I think we came back into the dressing room feeling like we lost the game,” said De Laet.

“We had some great chances to put the game away. We kept pushing on but it just wasn’t our day.

“In the first half we played really well, we had some chances, but in the second half they came back, we were expecting that. Towards the end we still had more chances and if we had put them away then we’d have won.

“We just have to keep playing our game and keep passing the ball because that’s what we’re best at.”

De Laet and his team-mates will all be eager to get back into action again on Tuesday night, when they will face Premier League giants Manchester City for a chance to reach the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup.

On the prospect of testing himself against the superstars from the Etihad, De Laet added: “It’s just another game. It’s special that Manchester City come here with all the stars that they’ve got, but it’s still only 11 players on the pitch and we’ll try to win.

“If we ant to get up this season then we’ll be playing against teams like that next year, so it’s a good test.”