Timothy Castagne has admitted Leicester are in a relegation battle and urged them to embrace the dark arts to haul themselves clear of trouble.

Brendan Rodgers' side have lost their last three league games, including a damaging defeat at fellow strugglers Southampton last weekend, which left them only two points above the line ahead of Saturday's clash with Chelsea.

Asked if they were in the fight for survival, Castagne said: 'Yeah definitely.

It would be stupid to say now. We know we are.

'We keep saying we shouldn't be there and we just need a few good games but it never happens. 

'We need to do it now.
We know that the last games of the season are all going to be finals.

'The mood is not the best, as you can imagine, especially with the loss at Southampton. We could have done more.

It was not enough.

'A lot of the time we talk about more fighting, more aggression - the dirty part of football. 

'In these games it's what you need. It's never going to be a clean game where you only play at the back.

'You have to do the dirty stuff and Southampton did it better than us.
We can't get stuck in a certain type of game because we have quality, delimapkv so it's about finding a balance where we can play our game but also show we can sometimes be a bit dirty,' he told BBC Radio Leicester.

As Sportsmail revealed on Wednesday, the ankle injury picked up by Harvey Barnes at Southampton is not as bad as feared and the winger could be involved against Graham Potter's improving side.

James Maddison is continuing to play through the pain barrier as he manages knee trouble while Jonny Evans has trained this week and may make his first appearance since the Carabao Cup win over Newport in November.