Manager Brendan Rodgers revealed Vardy initially sustained the injury in the Carabao Cup clash against Liverpool, in which the Foxes were eliminated on penalties after a 3-3 draw.

The 34-year-old was rested for the 6-3 defeat against Manchester City as a result, but played the full 90 minutes in the 1-0 Premier League clash with the Reds, where he aggravated the problem.

It comes as a huge blow to Leicester, with Vardy, its top scorer in the Premier League on nine goals, set to miss the next four games. As it stands, he would be back in contention to face Liverpool again in February.

"[Vardy] wasn't sure whether it was [a challenge from Joel Matip] or he felt something before, but you could see he could sort of run on and soldier on and wanted to," Rodgers said.

"But the scan has shown up that he could be [out for] three to four weeks.

"He felt it in the game at Liverpool in the [Carabao] Cup. If you saw that game, you could see the last half hour it was hindering his performance, but it felt like it could play on and obviously, we couldn't make any more changes.

"We didn't involve him at the weekend [against City] to give them that sort of maximum rest, even though he was on the bench, but he was never really going to be available to play.

"And then obviously, the other night he just felt it towards the end of the game. I just think the combination of games we've had affects the recovery time. It's just a difficult period for players, especially for recovery."

Vardy is Leicester's third most used Premier League player, having played 1321 minutes – behind only Kasper Schmeichel (1620) and Caglar Soyuncu (1418).

With Patson Daka still recovering from an injury of his own and Kelechi Iheanacho set to link up with Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations after the upcoming clash with Norwich City, the Foxes are set to endure a spell without a fit senior striker.