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Leicester’s defence may or may not have a different look to it next term.
The club have been linked with a £12m switch for full-back James Justin but speculation surrounding Harry Maguire’s future fails to go away.
Brendan Rodgers is hoping to keep his squad intact this summer but it’s been reported that should any club meet the Foxes’ valuation of £85m for Maguire they could let him go.
Two different types of swap deals could be on the cards according to The Sun who first claimed Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo could move the opposite way in a transfer involving Maguire.
They then also suggested that Andreas Pereira could be used in a deal.
However, if the England international does depart, Leicester must think twice about using Filip Benkovic as his direct replacement.
On the chalkboard
The Croatian central defender, who is rated at £9.9m per Transfermarkt, spent his first season in British football by playing for Celtic on loan after initially signing for Leicester last summer.
As a result, the 21-year-old is set to return to the Foxes and reunite with Rodgers.
The Northern Irishman was able to get the best out of the Croatian in Scotland as the towering 6 ft 3 defender impressed considerably.
But despite that, it was an injury-hit spell that saw him miss 12 games and 49 days of action from January to March.
The problem was with his ankle and that same issue has now resurfaced on international duty with Croatia U21s according to Leicestershire Live.
In the report it makes reference to the fact Benkovic is injury prone, citing the issues he picked up in his native country for Dinamo Zagreb before arriving in the Midlands.
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In an interview with Sporske Novosti, the centre-back commented on his injury record and time at Celtic, saying: “That’s me, a magnet for trouble. Before the injury, everything was super, I was just too happy.”
The fact that Benkovic appears to be a magnet for injuries is hugely concerning and as a result, placing their complete faith in him next season would be foolish.
Leicester must ensure that if Maguire does leave for pastures new that a replacement from elsewhere is brought in.
There’s no guarantee that any player will stay fit over the course of a season but there is certainly a reason to be worried about Benkovic’s fitness following a reoccurrence of his previous problem this week.
