Premier League: Leicester boss Nigel Pearson denies withdrawing Jeff Schlupp from Africa Cup of Nations

Nigel Pearson staunchly denied claims Leicester withdrew Jeff Schlupp from Africa Cup of Nations duty after he played in the 1-0 loss to Stoke on Saturday.

On the day the tournament started, Schlupp was the home side's best player, which came as a surprise given his recent withdrawal from Ghana's squad with a knee injury.

The 22-year-old had been due to link up with his national team at the tournament in Equatorial Guinea, but instead appeared for Leicester, a point which Pearson felt he had no need to justify after the clash at the King Power Stadium.

I don't see how it (him playing) is a surprise. I didn't pull him out of anything.

"We said he would be out for 10 days to two weeks and that's the case. I don't see how it (him playing) is a surprise. I didn't pull him out of anything,” Pearson said.

"He had scans here and was advised not to fly because of the swelling and then he went down to London to have an independent medical that was organised by the Ghanaian FA, and they came to the same conclusion as we did.

"They decided not to include him in their squad. If they've any problems then they need to look at their own administrators. It's nothing to do with me.

"What the Ghanaian FA decide to do in terms of making statements, how their administrators operate or comments the managers want to make, is entirely up to them, but quite frankly I couldn't care less about that."

After three wins and a draw in their previous four matches, by Pearson’s own admission his Leicester side were flat, with new signing Andrej Kramaric given little to work with following his introduction two minutes after Bojan Krkic’s strike on the hour mark.

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Leicester did not find a response and could not avoid defeat on a day when fellow strugglers Sunderland, Burnley and QPR all lost.

“It’s frustrating to lose the game bearing in mind we’ve seen other results (go our way). There will be a few managers in my position – where you’re rueing either missed opportunities or the fact a performance hasn’t given us the best chance of winning the game,” Pearson added.

“I probably feel how Mark (Hughes) did when we beat them at their place 1-0 earlier in the season – although we certainly didn’t dominate the game the way they did for long periods. In the first half we looked very dangerous in the second half the one bit of quality settled the match and that is frustrating because we’ve been playing pretty well of late.

“Today we weren’t quite able to create enough opportunities for ourselves, especially in the second half once they’d gone in front, and that was frustrating but we’ll move on.”