Leicester City’s Nigerian duo, Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi will be on their way to Thailand this weekend, as they join The Foxes for the burial of their late club owner, footballlive.ng can report.
Although the team will be in action same day against Cardiff City in the English Premier League, Iheanacho, Ndidi and the other players will travel for the funeral of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in Bangkok after Saturday’s game.
Vichai bought Leicester in 2010 and the team went on to stun the football world by winning the English Premier League title against the odds in 2016.
However, the 60-year-old billionaire died last Saturday with four others when his helicopter crashed next to Leicester’s King Power Stadium.
Leicester top striker, Jamie Vardy said the last week had been the hardest of his life but the players, who will travel by road to Cardiff, were keen to play on Saturday.
The funeral, likely to last a week, starts on Saturday in Bangkok, but the former England star said he and the other players have to be there from the start.
Vardy said: “We all spoke about wanting to play. It’s what Vichai would have wanted and that’s we are going to do.
“We know what we have to do and we need to go out and honour his name and put in a performance which will hopefully get the win.
“That’s how we are — we are a close-knit group. We are one big family and one of the main reasons for that is Vichai. For us to be there is massively important.
“It is going to be tough and it will be very emotional, but we’ve all chatted about it. People are saying the result doesn’t matter, but for us lads we want to make it a positive result.”
