Tuesday 28 February 2012

Jeff Schlupp makes successful return to Foxes' reserves

Schlupp: Firing on all cylinders
Leicester City striker Jeffrey Schlupp has made a successful return to the Foxes' reserve team following his spell on the sidelines through injury.

The Ghanaian international scored City's opener as the B-squad went on to record a solid 3-0 victory over Northampton Town's reserves in a behind-closed-doors fixture at Belvoir Drive.

Schlupp played his first hour of football since a knee injury sustained at Nottingham Forest in early January. The 19-year-old put on an impressive display alongside fellow first-teamers Matt Mills and Aleksandar Tunchev, whilst stand-in forward Franck Moussa netted a brace in the second half.

"It was great to see Jeff back on the pitch again and he scored a terrific goal, but fair play to Northampton, they made it a very tough game in the first half. I felt we needed to play with more tempo and we did that in the second," said Development Coach Steve Beaglehole after the game, "I was particularly pleased with Franck Moussa. The plan was to take Jeff and Tom Hopper off after an hour; we didn't have another striker in the group so Franck went and played up front and scored two terrific goals."

Schlupp could now be fit enough to feature in the squad to take-on Coventry City at the King Power Stadium this Saturday, whilst Martyn Waghorn and Darius Vassell are also shaping-up for a return to action. The return of two more attacking players, who featured heavily during Nigel Pearson's last reign and under Sven Goran Eriksson respectively, is sure to give current Leicester manager Pearson a boost as he looks to offload the out of favour defender Matt Mills.

Former City skipper Matt Oakley is now back in training with the first-team squad, however winger Paul Gallagher is expected to remain sidelined for another fortnight following his hamstring injury.

No comments: