Leicester City have been handed a significant injury blow with back-up goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk ruled out for six months.
The Pole has been forced to undergo ankle surgery after suffering an injury in training, and he’s now expected to miss the remainder of the calendar year. It’s a big blow for City, with Stolarczyk an able deputy to Mads Hermansen last season.
The injury likely means Danny Ward will remain at the club as Hermansen’s back-up, despite previously being a contender for a summer transfer. The Wales international played the full 90 minutes in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Shrewsbury.
In better injury news, Jamie Vardy has only suffered a knock and will be back before the end of pre-season. The striker was absent at Croud Meadow, with Patson Daka and Tom Cannon leading the line in each half.
Discussing the injury situation, Cooper said: “Vards unfortunately had a knock in the game against Villarreal. Fortunately he’s not going to be out for too long. We’re hoping he’ll be back with us in and around the Germany camp, if not, just after that. There was a bit of a sigh of relief.
“Jakub, it’s really unfortunate, he had a very innocuous injury in training and it’s ended up being really serious. He’s had to have an operation on his ankle and he’s going to be out for a long time.
“It couldn’t be any more bad luck. He’s found himself in a tough situation. He did it on the day we flew to Evian, we trained before we travelled. I feel for the boy. I’ve heard some really good things about him, and how talented he is.
“We’ll support him. The club is very well set up in terms of how they support players. We’ll get him back as quickly as possible. I think it will be around six months.”
Tuesday’s match was the first opportunity for supporters to see Cooper’s City side in action, and they were able to witness a victory. Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer found the net either side of a Caleb Okoli own goal.
Cooper said on the game: “Winning’s not a bad habit so that’s okay, but it’s also not a disaster if we don’t win these games. Objectives are more important and we had some clear objectives in terms of how we wanted to play and some physical returns, some players in positions we were trying.
“There were definitely some good bits and definitely some bits where we feel we should do better. The mistakes we made in the game were from the guys trying to play with our idea. I’m okay with that. It’s okay to make mistakes when they’re trying to do what we’re implementing.
“We played through well, but we didn’t continue our attacks. We turned it over too much. That caused moments in the game that were end to end. We were a bit imbalance when the ball was turned over. We didn’t quite put it together tonight. But the intention was there. That’s how you get better.”
