Leicester City striker, Shinji Okazaki will not be ready to return to action against Sheffield United on Friday evening, Claude Puel has confirmed.
The Foxes will do battle with the Championship outfit at the King Power Stadium in an effort to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. The Midlands outfit however will be without Okazaki having not recovered from a knee problem.
'It's too early'
The former Mainz 05 striker missed out in Leicester's last clash as they fell to a 5-1 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium due to the problem picked up in training.
Talking in his pre-match press conference, Puel suggested the game would come to early for Okazaki. He said: "For Okazaki, he will not be available. It's too early."
The absence will be a blow for the Foxes. They only currently have Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho and Fousseni Diabate available for the forward positions. Although, Demarai Gray could also potentially be selected to lead the line for the Foxes as he has done for the England U21 side on numerous occasions.
Okazaki has been performing well so far throughout the 2017/18 season and has notched seven goals in all competitions.
'All the squad is ready'
Despite the fact that Okazaki is missing, Puel has told that he is ready to welcome back Leicester captain, Wes Morgan. The 34-year-old defender has been missing since withdrawing from the Foxes' 3-0 victory over Huddersfield Town back at the start of January with a hamstring complaint.
on-loan Bayer Leverkusen defender, Aleksandar Dragović has been an excellent deputy in the Jamaican's absence. However, Morgan now looks set to return to the starting line-up on Friday evening.
Puel said: "Morgan can perhaps come back in the squad.
"All the squad is ready."