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Leicester City notebook: ‘Something special’ returns, loanee transfer claim
Leicester City round-up as midfielder Will Alves makes his return from his latest injury setback while Victor Kristiansen’s future is also discussed
Exciting Leicester City prospect Will Alves made his long-awaited comeback from injury this week having played precious little football since suffering a devastating ACL tear in December 2022. Midfielder Alves, 18, played just over an hour in the Premier League Cup as the young Foxes saw off Brentford 3-2 to qualify for the next round.
Alves was on the receiving end of a horror challenge which angered then boss Brendan Rodgers back in 2022, when City’s under 18s played Wolves. Since, he has had a 45-minute run-out in the EFL Trophy and then played 90 minutes against Wolves in December in the PL2, but he has had to contend with set-backs since marking his return.
The teenager, who was handed his first-team debut by Rodgers in an FA Cup win over Watford as a 16 year old in January 2022, is hoping now to put his injury issues behind him and continue to justify why Enzo Maresca – who previously described him as being a player who has ‘something special’ – is so excited by him.
“It’s a brilliant feeling,” Alves told LCFC. “I think the lads started off slowly, but winning three games on the bounce in this competition has been really good for us. I thought I did well; it was just nice to be out there playing again, really.
“Obviously, I’ve struggled to be on the pitch recently, and just being able to play 60 minutes and get through it fine, is a great feeling for myself. I’m just going to keep pushing, getting sharper and sharper and in a better condition as well, just playing more minutes and looking forward to the next games and training as well.”
Victor Kristiansen has reportedly no desire to return to City in the summer once his loan spell with Serie A club Bologna expires. The Danish left-back, who is a full international, has spent this campaign in Italy having only joined City a little over a year ago, midway through their ill-fated Premier League term.
Former Copenhagen defender Kristiansen, 21, was permitted to join Bologna on loan in the summer following the club’s drop into the Championship; Bologna, under Thiago Motta, are going extremely well and have lost just four of their 22 league games and, in sixth place, are still in with a shout of an unlikely Champions League place come the end of this season.
Kristiansen has three assists from left-back in 18 appearances this term, one of those arriving most recently in the weekend’s 4-2 win over Sassuolo, but it’s claimed that Bologna remain torn about the prospect of paying €15m to acquire Kristiansen permanently, and that the club’s hierarchy will assess his performances closely for the remainder of the season before making a decision.
