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Shinji Okazaki needs more time to recover upon returning from international football than any other member of the Leicester City squad, manager Claudio Ranieri has revealed. Okazaki, 30, played in Japan's World Cup qualifying win over Iraq last month but did not play against Australia five days later. Upon his return to Leicester, the striker sat out the club's loss to Chelsea and then came on as a substitute in the Champions League victory over Copenhagen, before starting in their two most recent Premier League games. "I don't know what happens, but when he comes back he is a different person, believe me," Ranieri told reporters. "He needs to recover. He is not a machine where you put in the money and he starts to run. "There are players like Wes Morgan who go around the world [with Jamaica] but on the pitch he is the same. Shinji loses his energy. After the last international break it wasn't the true Shinji." Okazaki will be hoping to start again for Leicester when they face an away trip to Copenhagen in the Champions League on Wednesday.
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