Ranieri’s Injury Update: Vardy & De Laet

- The Foxes face Mark Hughes’ men at King Power Stadium in the Barclays Premier League

- Vardy is getting better and better, according to Ranieri 

- De Laet injured his groin in the warm-up ahead of City’s Emirates FA Cup fixture against Tottenham Hotspur 

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri provided an update on the fitness of Jamie Vardy and Ritchie De Laet ahead of his side’s Barclays Premier League clash with Stoke City. 

The Foxes host Mark Hughes’ men at King Power Stadium on Saturday and will be without midfielder Matty James (knee) and defender Jeffrey Schlupp (hamstring) for the clash. 

Ranieri has often discussed Vardy’s fitness this campaign given that the England international has trained less frequently than other members of the squad. 

But Ranieri is not worried about his top scorer’s fitness and believes that he is getting better and better every day. 

Ranieri said: “I said Jamie is not fully fit now because he played so many matches when he was scoring goals without training because he always had a little problem and didn’t make a training session. 

“For the rest of the week he had one or two days soft [training] and played. Slowly you lose your stamina which is normal but now he’s getting better. After the little problem with the surgery, he’s getting better. 

“Every day I look at him only on the pitch. That is much better and he’s started to make training sessions. He’s getting better day after day. He’s rested a long time – two months. Now he can start to play and train.” 

Meanwhile, Ranieri confirmed defender De Laet has had a scan on his groin after pulling up in the pre-match warm-up ahead of City’s Emirates FA Cup clash with Tottenham Hotspur. 

The City boss added: “His scan was good. It’s just a little problem. When he’s ready we will say. Suddenly it happened and I’m sure it’ll disappear. 

“During the warm up he felt something in his groin. We preferred to stop him instead of after 10 minutes have to change a player.”