After overcoming a back issue, Tom is finally ready to make his debut for Leicester City. However, his return to fitness presents a challenge for manager Enzo Maresca. The £7.5m striker, signed from Everton, has been declared fit to play for the first time in City’s match against Middlesbrough on Saturday. But it’s not a simple decision to include him in the starting lineup.
Cannon’s lengthy absence means he’s not yet prepared to play a full 90 minutes. Additionally, he plays in a position where City faces stiff competition. With Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho already sharing the role of sole striker, and Patson Daka only featuring off the bench in one league game, Maresca must now find a way to provide game-time for Cannon to get him fully up and running before January, when both Iheanacho and Daka will be leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations.
“Finally,” Maresca said at a press conference on Friday when asked if Cannon was fit. “The last game he’d had just two sessions so it was not important for him to be in the squad. But now it’s been one week with us and he could be in the squad. After two months out, you need time. He is fit and could be with us, but not for 90 minutes.”
“He’s the youngest of the strikers we have, so for sure (he’s going to bring) energy. But not only energy. First of all, he scores goals. Last year, in six months, he scored eight goals. The problem now with Tom is very easy. It’s the physical condition, and then it’s that we have strikers already there, so he needs to compete with them.”
Cannon is hoping to replicate his success from last season, where he scored eight goals in 20 games on loan at Preston and 12 times in 16 matches for Everton’s Under-21s before moving to Leicester.
