Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers said having Jamie Vardy back gives his side “a huge boost” after the striker made a goal-scoring return from injury at Burnley to give the Foxes their first league win of 2022.

It was his 10th Premier League goal of the season, but his first since late November and gave his boss hope that they can finish the season strongly after a run of five matches without a win in the striker’s absence.

“We knew we had James [Maddison] and Jamie’s quality to come on,” Rodgers told BBC Sport. “James scored a brilliant goal and then you could see the confidence from it. Then Vardy was there and did what Vardy does best.

“He is a real catalyst for the team. You see his energy. He makes runs and presses and is normally in the right areas to score. He is a huge boost for us. To have that quality and mentality back in the team will help us.

“We have to stay focused on the football and not look too far ahead. Stay calm, play our football and keep focused and then we came here and got a result.

“A long way to go in the season. We want to go far as we can in the European competition and see where we are at the end of the season.”

Vardy has been absent with a hamstring injury since the 1-0 win at Liverpool – the last time the Foxes had won before the trip to Turf Moor.

“It has been a long nine weeks resting and then four weeks getting the muscles back up,” Vardy told BBC Sport. “The main thing was to get back on and put a performance in.

“You always want to come on but you always have to listen to the medical team as well and I’ve been back in training just the last four days. Getting 20 minutes it is good for myself there is no more issues.

“I don’t think you can lose that [scoring touch]. It is instinct.”

It had been a largely even game before Maddison’s opener, although the Foxes did fashion the greater number of chances, finding home keeper Nick Pope in fine form.

The Clarets had the ball in the net in the first half, but Maxwel Cornet was adjudged to have moved a fraction early to tap in Aaron Lennon’s low cross.

The win takes the Foxes to 30 points and allows them to breathe more easily after a poor recent run of league results.

There is no respite for Sean Dyche’s side, who have seen their recent crucial revival checked and stay in the bottom three, a point behind 17th-placed Everton.

City show grit and Vardy brings the guile

After two fifth-place finishes for Leicester in the past two seasons, this league campaign is now one of earning Premier League respectability while continuing to challenge for the last remaining piece of silverware on offer – the inaugural Europa Conference League.

There have been extenuating circumstances for the Foxes’ downturn this season, not least Vardy’s extended absence, but they have looked a soft touch at times at the back, with the gradual sapping of confidence taking away their attacking verve.

Prior to this game, they were the only side without an away clean sheet in the top flight this season, shipping 25 goals in 11 games on the road as part of a run of 18 top-flight matches away from the King Power Stadium without stopping the opposition scoring.

They had also conceded a league-high 18 times from set-pieces.

This result – and the performance to earn it – was crucial then, coming against a side with two wins and a draw from the past three matches, scrapping for every point and providing of the sternest of tests to a defence from corners and free-kicks.

As pleasing for Brendan Rodgers as the two goals – both superbly taken by two substitutes providing that requisite touch of class from the bench – will be the way his side kept the Clarets contained.

Aside from Cornet’s disallowed tap-in, the home side were kept to half-chances, with the Ivorian poking another effort wide in the second-half and Wout Weghorst failing to convert at the back post shortly after Leicester’s opener.

Better chances came at the other end, with Nick Pope required to demonstrate his strong positioning and reflexes on a number of occasions to deny Ricardo Pereira, Patson Daka and Harvey Barnes.

The icing on the cake was Vardy’s sharpness after coming on. He acrobatically volleyed one effort over, was quick and smart to stay onside and latch on to Kasper Schmeichel’s clearance to set up Maddison and perfectly placed to claim his goal.

The finish means he has now surpassed Ian Wright’s record for most Premier League goals scored after turning 30, with the Leicester man taking his tally to 94.

“It is great, probably just means I didn’t score enough before 30,” he added. “Fingers crossed there’s more to come.”

He will now be champing at the bit to start against Leeds on Saturday. Burnley, meanwhile, have a tough home game against Chelsea as they again seek to claw their way out of the bottom three.

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