Wout Faes is one of 12 Leicester City players who has been away on international duty whilst Steve Cooper has been working hard with those left at the club to try and rectify the poor start to the season.
Steve Cooper will be hoping all of Leicester City‘s international representatives return to the club with no injury woes as he prepares to face Crystal Palace on Saturday.
He will of course be without Deadline Day signing Odsonne Edouard for the trip to Palace as the loanee is unable to play against his parent club.
Kasey McAteer and Caleb Okoli both earned their first senior call-ups this international break so should return to Leicester on cloud nine but Cooper will hope fatigue is not too much of an issue with so many players away.
One player who has played two 90 minutes for his country this break is Wout Faes, with the defender on the losing side for Belgium against France on Monday night.
Leicester City’s Wout Faes receives mixed feedback for Belgium display vs France
Faes has played every single minute for Belgium since manager Dominico Tedesco was appointed manager in February 2023.
This shows how highly-rated the Leicester man is by his international manager, but it was a difficult night for Faes and his team-mates as they lost 2-0 to France in Lyon on Monday.
Goals from Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembele proved the difference and Belgian media were mixed in their assessment of Faes’ display.
RTBF Actus rated the Leicester man’s display a five out of ten, commenting: “Solid in the duels, interesting on the restart, Wout Faes put his body in opposition to the victorious strike from Kolo Muani. Author of a very nice breakthrough in the 18th. Had a more complicated second half.”
Nieuwsblad were slightly less critical of Faes, scoring him a seven out of ten before simply adding: “Sent several good diagonals. Kept his head above water.”
Faes will have to be at his best to help Leicester City beat Crystal Palace
Leicester have just one point from three games so far since returning to the Premier League, but there were promising signs in the 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa last time out.
One of those was the central defensive partnership of Faes and Okoli, with the pair having the makings of a decent duo at the heart of the backline.
Okoli’s pace and athleticism makes up for Faes’ lack of such attributes, whilst Faes is a slightly more cultured footballer than the Italian.
Therefore, the two players compliment each other well and it looks as though Cooper may have found his centre-back pairing moving forward.
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