Blow for Leicester as Vardy leaves West Ham match with hamstring injury

Leicester City suffered a potentially damaging injury blow as star forward Jamie Vardy had to leave Wednesday’s match against West Ham with a hamstring problem.

With the Foxes up 1-0 and the first half coming to a close, Vardy signalled to the Leicester bench that he was experiencing discomfort in his hamstring after clearing the ball out of his own penalty area. 

The 33-year-old received treatment on the sidelines and attempted to play on but was unable to continue and was replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho in the 43rd minute.

Vardy’s injury was actually the second suffered by a Leicester player on the night, with an injured Nampalys Mendy replaced by Wilfried Ndidi 10 minutes before Vardy was taken off.

Leicester would go on to grab a second goal before the half, with Ricardo Pereira scoring to make it 2-0. 

The goal was the team’s 50th Premier League tally of the season, the most the Foxes have scored after 24 games of a top-flight campaign since 1930-31.

Though Mark Noble did manage to reduce West Ham’s deficit with a goal from the spot, Ayoze Perez answered with a penalty of his own and then added another goal late on as Leicester won 4-1 at the King Power Stadium.

Should Vardy be forced to miss a significant amount of time though, it would be a major blow to the Foxes, as the veteran forward is the Premier League’s leading scorer this term with 17 goals.

With Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford both suffering long-term injuries, many have called on Vardy to end his England retirement ahead of Euro 2020 this summer. 

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But Vardy thus far has not expressed any willingness to reenter the Three Lions picture, instead focusing on his club career. 

He has been instrumental in his side’s fantastic campaign so far under Brendan Rodgers, with the club currently in third place and looking nailed on for a Champions League spot.

Leicester will take on Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday before a Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Aston Villa three days later.