Asia Trophy squad announced with noteworthy absentees

Leicester City start their preseason in earnest next week, flying out to Hong Kong to take part in the Premier League Asia Trophy. The Foxes face West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday, before a final or third place playoff against Liverpool or Crystal Palace at the weekend.

Today the club announced their 24 man squad for the tournament and you can see the full list here.

The list is mostly notable for three missing first teamers Robert Huth, Ben Chilwell, and Demarai Gray along with development squad goalkeeper Daniel Iverson. The 19 year old Dane was one of just three keepers with the squad in Austria, leaving just Kasper Schmeichel and Ben Hamer.

To me that suggests that either Hamer is being given another chance to win the backup spot, the club is trying to put him in the shop window or, probably most likely, Kasper is just going to play both games anyway. The latter would actually be a good sign, because players trying to move clubs tend to avoid preseason games if possible.

You shouldn't be worrying about the young duo of Chilwell and Gray; all of the club’s internationals were given a little more time off than the rest of the squad and, with the under 21 European Championships, the pair have already played four games this summer and could probably use more rest.

The real worry is the missing Robert Huth. The hulking centre back missed the last three matches of last season through injury (during which we collected just one point and slid out of the top half) and has, very quietly, appeared to miss all of preseason so far.

There’s been no official word from the club that the man mountain is still injured, but he’s been conspicuously absent from all photos of the Austrian tour, including this one, which appears to show the full squad.

While they do appear to be gradually moving away from the raging Huth/Morgan pairing, I’d be very surprised if the club were looking to move on without him at this point. An injury derailing his preseason could be concern that we’ll have to monitor as the games get closer. Of course, already having Harry Maguire in does alleviate that somewhat.

This does mean we should get two good opportunities to see our new defender in action, as well as Vicente Iborra who will also travel with the squad.

The three missing first team players are replaced with youngsters from the development squad: left back Callum Elder, who spent last season on loan at Brentford, attacking midfielder Harvey Barnes, who really impressed with MK Dons last year and centre back Elliot Moore, who captains the development squad.