Patson Daka has returned to training just as the door has opened for him at Leicester City. However, this may be his last chance to walk through it.
Daka is yet to feature in a competitive game under Steve Cooper after he was the victim of what seems like an annual City injury in the final pre-season friendly. He hobbled off at Lens, underwent ankle surgery and has barely been seen since.
But now he’s out on the grass again and, should he get up to speed quickly, there will be chances for him. That’s because Jamie Vardy needs a deputy, and soon.
The number nine has started all 10 of City’s Premier League games so far, and played 94 per cent of the club’s minutes. Cooper has been reluctant to bring him off when City have been chasing a goal, but it’s not as if he’s been incapable of delivering, Vardy setting up Jordan Ayew’s last-gasp equaliser at Ipswich.
However, at age 37, Vardy’s minutes do not feel sustainable. That’s especially as, in December, the games come thick and fast. In the Premier League, City had three fixtures each in August, September and October. They’ve got four in November. But in December, there’s six.
Vardy’s not played in any of the midweek cup games and it remains to be seen if he will be able to manage the midweek Premier League matches. That feels risky, especially when he’s playing the full 90 minutes at the weekend.
So City need somebody who can share the load. Ayew would be the leading contender at the moment, but Cooper needs to be able to use the Ghanaian on the winger, where he can receive the ball to feet more often. Odsonne Edouard, meanwhile, appears to have slipped down the pecking order and didn’t even get onto the bench at Ipswich.
Throw all those factors together and it feels like a fully-fit Daka can and will play for City over the next couple of months. When his chance comes, he needs to take it.
It’s not clear quite how highly Cooper rates Daka as yet. He featured throughout pre-season but Vardy was injured. All Daka’s appearances revealed were that he was ahead of Tom Cannon in the manager’s thinking. So it’s unknown how patient Cooper will be with him.
It certainly doesn’t feel like supporters will have much patience. Daka has been at City for more than three years now and he’s not yet won over the fans, with his goalscoring form too patchy and his misses too prominent.
Back in February, on the back of seven goals in 10 games, Daka messed up a one-on-one at Leeds. Had he scored, City would have led 2-0. Instead they lost 3-1 and Enzo Maresca spoke at the time about the guilt Daka felt. It did seem to knock his confidence and he missed some big opportunities thereafter.
By the defeat at Plymouth, his finishing ability appeared to have deserted him, the Zambian snatching at chances and slicing his shots to the audible frustration of supporters. After that game, he played just 13 minutes over the final four matches of the season.
It means, across competitive and friendly outings, Daka has not scored in 16 appearances for City. That sort of run cannot continue if he’s to be selected consistently in the Premier League.
If he doesn’t deliver, it feels like an exit next summer is inevitable, whether City survive or not. By then, he will have just one year left on his contract and City may look to offload in order to make back a small fee, rather than lose him for nothing a year later.
But maybe he can deliver. Under Cooper, Vardy has scored more goals this season than he did in the whole of the relegation campaign. Maybe the same can be true for Daka too.
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