Medical expert: Castagne has had ‘urgent’ surgery as nine-week Leicester City lay-off confirmed

Timothy Castagne needed “urgent” surgery in order to get him back in action for a depleted Leicester City side as soon as possible.

That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.

Castagne, 26, suffered a dead leg in Brendan Rodgers’ side’s 1-0 win over Liverpool last month (28 December).

That ultimately led to the Belgian right-back requiring surgery to correct excessive blood flow to his thigh.

Per Leicester Live last Tuesday (18 January), Rodgers confirmed Castagne “had to have an operation quickly” and will now miss “eight or nine weeks”.

Dinnery explained why time was of the essence when Castagne went under the knife.

“From a medical standpoint, the urgency was because they needed to get it sorted,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.

“From the club’s point of view, he’s a pivotal part of that Leicester squad.

“It was an injury he picked up in early January and it was being treated conservatively but wasn’t responding as hoped.

“Further tests revealed that bleed, which needed to be addressed. The quicker that happens, the quicker the player can be back.

“We’re looking at a Leicester team who are on the slide, There are some key absences, especially in the backline. They can’t stop conceding at the moment.

“The inflammation can restrict movement and you don’t know what the pressure build-up is doing to the muscle and blood vessel around there.

“But I’d suggest the main cause for the surgery was to address the underlying problems so they can get him back on the training pitches.”

Jonny Evans, Ricardo Pereira and Ryan Bertrand are also currently out of action in the Foxes’ backline.

Kelechi Iheanacho, Namapalys Mendy and Wilfried Ndid meanwhile are all at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Jamie Vardy is out with a thigh injury.

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