Brendan Rodgers is considering recalling Filip Benkovic with the defender yet to kick a competitive ball while on loan at Cardiff.
Back in August 2018 the then Celtic boss brought the defender in on loan from Leicester City with a solid partnership quickly formed with Dedryck Boyata as Celtic progressed through the group stage of the Europa League.
After being injured and replaced at half-time in the 1-0 defeat at Ibrox at the end of December Benkovic picked up another knock against Hamilton at the end of January then rarely featured under Neil Lennon.
Returning to Leicester where Rodgers was no installed as manager should have given the Croatian a head-start but he failed to make a single Leicester appearance last season before going out on loan to Bristol City in January.
Even with the money swilling around the EPL a £13m transfer fee isn’t to be written off with Rodgers telling the Leicester Mercury on December 18 that he still has hopes for the defender that impressed him at Celtic.
He needs to play games and at the minute he’s not playing at Leicester and now he’s not playing at Cardiff. It’s something where we need to get Filip playing. He needs to get working again and show the level he can play at.
Thankfully for myself, I’ve seen the level. When he was with me at Celtic he played against RB Leipzig and he was sensational. Really since that first 10 games at Celtic, he hasn’t maintained a level of fitness and performance that I know he can. Hopefully for him he can get playing again and if it’s not going to be at Cardiff in the longer term, then we’ll look at it from there.
Benkovic is under contract with Leicester until June 2023.
