The next day, January 13, Chu, who rushed back to Leicester City that night after receiving his transfer from Zurich, Switzerland, went to the training base early to cancel his leave.
After nearly two weeks of rest, the soft tissue contusion on Chu Zheng's right thumb only had some dull pain. Although the bone fracture had not completely healed, Chu Zheng could no longer feel the pain when he turned his thumb.
After arriving at the training base, Chu Zheng went to the locker room to change clothes, then came to the court and jogged several laps, and then performed some basic ball feel training.
When the time came to 8 o'clock, Chu Zheng packed up the ball and walked directly to the medical department.
"Hey Chu, Congratulations!"
"Thanks, Max!"
"Hey Chu, Congratulations!!"
"..."
Along the way, every Leicester City staff member who met Chu Zheng would send congratulations to Chu Zheng, and some of them would even give Chu Zheng a big hug directly.
"Hey! Congratulations! Chu, did you know? You are our first Leicester City player to win the Puskas Award!"
As soon as they approached the medical room, David, the team medical director, stood up and gave Chu Zheng another warm hug.
"You're recovering well, I think you can return to the team!" After more than ten minutes, David, who carefully examined Chu Zheng's right hand, concluded.
Hearing this, the smile on Chu Zheng's face became a little brighter.
There had been no games in the past two weeks and he could only watch helplessly. Chu Zheng felt like his bones were itching.
By the time Chu Zheng finished breakfast in the restaurant and appeared at the training ground, it was already approaching 9 o'clock.
As soon as he stepped onto the court, Vardy, Mahlis, Kante, Morgan and others gave Chu Zheng a congratulatory hug one by one, with a sincere smile on everyone's face.
But Chu Zheng soon discovered that something was not right about the atmosphere in the team.
Compared with usual times today, Vardy, Mahrez and others seemed less active. It seemed that everyone was a little preoccupied.
Chu Zheng can probably guess what these guys are worried about.
Since losing 1-0 to Bournemouth at home in the last round, many European media have been hyping up Leicester City's decline among the championship contending teams.
Chu Zheng had seen most of those reports.
Chu Zheng had to admit that what the media said was quite bluffing. Some authoritative media even listed detailed data for analysis.
Starting from the 18th round match against Liverpool, including the recent EFL Cup semi-finals and the FA Cup third round, Leicester City has been winless in five games.
Currently in second place in the Premier League standings is Arsenal, who are in very good form this year, with 40 points, only 3 points behind Leicester City.
Although Chu Zheng knew that his teammates were worrying about gains and losses, he couldn't help it. This was Ranieri's job.
Now that the team's thoughts are fluctuating, Ranieri must intervene in time, otherwise the players' thoughts will continue to spread.
Otherwise, Leicester City is likely to suffer from this kind of thinking about gains and losses, which will affect the overall state of the team.
Then what awaits Leicester City will be a series of disastrous defeats.
Chu Zheng actually thinks this problem can be easily solved.
As long as they win a game heartily, the negative state of the team will disappear without a trace in an instant.
…
At noon, Leicester City embarked on a journey to White Hart Lane in North London to play away against Tottenham Hotspur, their opponent in the 21st round of the Premier League.
At 19:30 pm London time, the White Hart Lane stadium, which can accommodate 36,200 players, was packed to the brim.
In the domestic LeTV sports live broadcast room, Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu are also ready.
"Since Chu Zheng was injured in the match against Manchester City, he has been resting for nearly two weeks!"
"Before the game, Ranieri was interviewed by the media. He did not say whether he would let Chu Zheng start, but he mentioned Chu Zheng's injury."
"Chu Zheng's injury to his right hand has recovered very well, and now it basically doesn't affect his game anymore."
After Zhan Jun finished speaking, Zhang Lu immediately said: "Chu Zheng's return to the team is a shot in the arm for Leicester City, which has been in a bit of a sluggish state recently."
"We all know that Chu Zheng is now in the Leicester City team. He is no longer a simple midfield commander. His hard work on the court actually has a great impact on other Leicester City players.
, so there is actually no problem at all to say that Chu Zheng is the spiritual leader of Leicester City..."
Zhan Jun nodded, agreed with this, and said with a smile: "If you watch the game carefully enough, you will find that the performance of Leicester City players is somewhat different when Chu Zheng is on the court and when he is not on the court."
"When Chu Zheng is on the court, other Leicester City players have a more determined attitude during the game, their direction is very clear, and they will take more risky passes."
"But Chu Zheng is not here. Leicester City players sometimes subconsciously play very conservatively. If you look at the post-match data, you will find that the number of risky shots forward has been significantly reduced. Even when the team is at a disadvantage, the number of players on the field
The players will still play a little confused."
During the chat, the time came to 19:45.
Leicester City and Tottenham players also appeared in the narrow player tunnel of White Hart Lane and lined up, waiting for the referee to lead the game.
Chu Zheng was in the middle of the queue. He put his hands on Vardy's shoulders in front of him, and the two chatted and laughed.
But in Tottenham's queue, players kept looking at Chu Zheng frequently, and their eyes were extremely complicated.
Among them is Son Heung-min.
When he thought of Chu Zheng's record of 21 assists in a single Premier League season, Sun Xingmin felt a deep sense of disbelief in his heart.
Moreover, in addition to Chu Zheng's 21 assists, he also scored 10 Premier League goals.
For Sun Heung-min, who has always wanted to compete with Chu Zheng and prove that he is better than Chu Zheng, this super data is as heavy as a million-ton mountain that makes people unable to resist.
The only thing that makes Son Heung-min feel a little lucky is that this guy doesn't seem to be in the national team.
But Son Heung-min knows that it is only a matter of time for such a super player to enter the national team.
I'm afraid that they will have a very, very, very headache when they face the Chinese team in Asia.
Son Heung-min has played in Europe for so long, and he knows very well what level of player Chu Zheng is in front of him.
When a player of this caliber is placed on the Asian stage, it is tantamount to a nuclear bomb for other teams.
At 19:55 minutes, as players from both sides came on stage, the rosters for the games between Leicester City and Tottenham also appeared one after another.
Leicester City:(442)
Goalkeeper: Schmeichel
Defenders: Danny Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fox
Midfielder: Mahrez, Kante, Chu Zheng, Albrighton
Forwards: Shinji Okazaki, Vardy
"Okay!" Seeing Chu Zheng appear on the starting list, Zhan Jun raised his voice and said, "Chu Zheng starts, this game is interesting."
"While Leicester City rotated eight main players last weekend, they drew 2-2 with Tottenham in the FA Cup. This is Leicester City's longest winless streak this season."
"In the first round of the Premier League match against Leicester City, Pochettino tried to use Lamela to restrict Chu Zheng, but unfortunately he failed in the end."
"And in this game, again, how will Tottenham restrict Chu Zheng, the unprecedented super assist king in the Premier League!"
As soon as the words fell, Tottenham's starting lineup appeared on the screen.
Tottenham Hotspur:(4231)
Forward: Harry Kane
Attacking midfielder: Ali, Eriksen, Latin America
Midfielder: Tom Carroll, Dell
Defenders: Ben Davies, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Kyle Walker
Goalkeeper: Lori
"Tottenham's performance so far this season can be said to be extremely good. Except for Leicester City, which only lost one game, Tottenham have achieved 9 wins, 9 draws and 2 losses in the first 20 rounds of the Premier League.
In terms of record, we have only lost two games.”
"It is worth mentioning that this is the fourth time in the history of Tottenham that they have only lost 2 games when they reached the 20th round."
"The first three times Tottenham ended up winning the league championship that season."
"So this game can be said to be a head-to-head matchup!" Zhang Lu smiled.
"Ranieri needs to maintain the 3-point advantage, while Pochettino needs to close the gap with Leicester City to retain hope for the final sprint!"