Signed by Leicester City last year, Jannik Vestergaard hasn’t really been given a chance by Brendan Rodgers this season.
Arriving from Southampton for close to £16m, the centre-back only ever made 10 appearances in the Premier League during the 2021-22 season, before disappearing off the face of the earth for the second half of the campaign.
Rodgers never really seemed fully convinced by the Dane, and even with Leicester hugely struggling in the Premier League in the early stages of this campaign, he seems reluctant to give the 30-year-old a go.
Vestergaard’s only appearance so far has been in the EFL Cup in a penalty win over Shrewsbury, which hasn’t been enough for him to earn a spot in Kasper Hjulmand’s Denmark squad.
Speaking at a press conference, where he was asked about the defender, the national team manager revealed his thought process.
He said, relayed by Bold: “I think a lot about Jannik, who has been a fantastic player during the time I have been national coach. He has ended up in the situation he is in through no fault of his own. He has done everything he can. I really hope Leicester find out that they can solve some of their defensive problems by using Jannik.
“He’s a skilled player and we have a lot of faith in him, but you can’t play against Croatia and France if you don’t play.”
Hjulmand also praised the Leicester City player’s attitude, who is doing ‘everything’ he can on the training pitch to remain fit, and while ‘there are no rules’ in terms of how many matches a player has to feature in before being considered for the Denmark squad, ‘it is a long period now that he has not played matches’.
Basically, he needs to feature for the Foxes or his World Cup dream will go up in smoke.
