Leicester City suffered a third consecutive defeat in the Championship on Saturday, as they were beaten 2-1 by Queens Park Rangers at King Power Stadium.
The league leaders were 12 points clear at the summit of the table a couple of weeks ago but now that gap has been closed to just three points.
Ipswich’s win at Plymouth moved them into second, leapfrogging their promotion rivals Leeds United, who dropped points in the West Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town.
Southampton also claimed victory and moved eight points behind the Foxes with 11 games remaining of the season.
Enzo Maresca‘s side dominated the ball and had 18 efforts on goal against QPR but failed to really carve out many quality chances.
Ricardo Pereira, who has captained The Foxes on several occasions this term, was absent from the clash and was a huge miss.
Ricardo Pereira’s QPR absence explained
Eyebrows were raised among City fans when Pereira wasn’t named in the starting line-up, and even more so when it turned out he wasn’t in the squad altogether.
Many feared the worst and suspected that he’d sustained an injury and unfortunately, those fears were confirmed by Maresca.
“Ricardo is injured and he will be out until after the international break,” the former Manchester City assistant said.
Such news means he’ll miss Leicester’s trips to Sunderland, Hull City and Chelsea, whom the East Midlanders face in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Pereira’s injury will be a huge blow to City and Maresca will have to find a solution in midfield and at right-back.
Enzo Maresca must find solution to Ricardo Pereira’s injury
The Leicester boss will now have to continue with Hamza Choudhury as an inverted right-back, whilst in midfield, where Pereira had been playing of late, he has a huge problem.
Dennis Praet started in place of the seven-cap Portugal international on the weekend as a number eight but was forced off in the first half due to injury.
Speaking post-match, Maresca said: “Dennis is injured again. I was a midfielder. Probably on Tuesday (against Sunderland) I can play half an hour, 45 minutes, because in this moment we have just Harry Winks, Kiernan, and Yunus.”
The Italian head coach tried to find the funny side of his midfield dilemma but in reality, City are left with little options and it’s becoming a real concern.
Leicester make the trip to the North East on Tuesday to face 10th-placed Sunderland.