Amartey: Ghana and Leicester City defender returns to training after two-months layoff

Leicester City defender Daniel Amartey has returned to training after two months on the sidelines, club boss Brendan Rodgers has announced.

The 25-year-old has been in the treatment room since sustaining a hamstring injury during a Premier League encounter with West Ham United in October.

His comeback is a boost for the Foxes in their chase for the league title.

"[We've had] some really good news as Daniel Amartey’s come back in and trained with the team today, which is great news for us," Rodgers said ahead of Sunday's Premier League meeting with Sheffield United, his club's official website has reported.

"He’d worked so hard to come back from his injury and then he was outstanding in his games and, unfortunately, he got injured in the West Ham game.

"He’s come back really well, he looked strong in training and we’ll hopefully build him up over the next weeks as well."

The game against West Ham was just his second league appearance for the season and in two years, having just returned from a long injury layoff after picking up an ankle injury, coincidentally also against West Ham in October 2018.

"Daniel Amartey’s (hamstring) a little bit away, but he's progressing really well. It gives us a really exciting squad," Rodgers said in his team news ahead of Thursday's Europa League fixture against Ukrainian outfit Zorya Luhansk.

Amartey is expected to work on his match fitness in the coming few weeks, his game comeback expected towards the latter part of December or in January.

His injury situation has made him unavailable for international duty with Ghana in the last two years, a situation which led to his omission from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations squad.

New Ghana coach CK Akonnor had hoped to give the centre-back a recall for November's Afcon 2022 qualifying double-header against Sudan but the last injury scuppered the plans.

Should the former Copenhagen man avoid any new major injury setbacks, Amartey will be expected to make a return to national duty when the Black Stars take on South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe in the concluding part of the Afcon qualifiers in March next year.