Brendan Rodgers insists Kelechi Iheanacho has a future at Leicester City

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has insisted that Kelechi Iheanacho remains in his plans for the 2019/20 season.

Iheanacho missed a glorious chance to help the Foxes share the points with his former club, Manchester City, last time out.

The miss is the highlight of the 22-year-old unimpressive form this season, having only scored twice in 35 appearances across all competitions.

Rodgers has, however, mapped out plans to help Iheanacho improve on his performances next season.

 “Yes he is [part of my plans] ” Rodgers told Leicester Mercury.

“He’s just had his first season adapting to a new club. Then when you’re playing or challenging one of the best strikers in the league, it’s difficult.

“Kel will come back into pre-season, have a really good pre-season, gain more confidence, work hard and hopefully come out of that with a renewed motivation to show his qualities.”

Iheanacho has been limited to nine Premier League starts this season and he is behind Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki in the pecking order.

The striker has not started a game since Rodgers took charge and has only made six substitute appearances.

The former Celtic boss is satisfied with the contribution of the Nigeria international in the few minutes he has featured for the side.

“I’ve been impressed with him,” he continued.

“His appetite, his work, and then in games, where he has come on, whether it’s for five minutes or for 15 minutes, he’s impacted the game and done very well, and he nearly did again, it’s just unfortunate.

“He knows he should score, in big games you don’t get many chances and he has the quality, but it just didn’t happen for him.

“He’s a fantastic young player and hopefully he can show that over his time at Leicester.”

On the international scene, Iheanacho will hope to be part of Gernot Rohr’s squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, slated for June and July.

Nigeria are in Group B along with Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar.