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Former Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has become the latest pundit to wax lyrical on Jonny Evans’ renaissance as a Premier League defender and has labelled him the team’s best defender this season.
After suffering a set of serious injuries, the Northern Irishman could only play a bit-part role in Leicester’s attempts to beat the drop last season, where they were ultimately unsuccessful in doing so.
Things got so bad that Evans has even admitted that he was considering retirementin the summer due to injury.
Clearly the rumours still persist as his national team coach, Michael O’Neill, had to dispel the notion that the defender was considering international retirement as he was left out of the nation’s two recent friendlies.
However, the 36 year old has shocked everyone by stepping up when required and putting in a series of top drawer performances for the Red Devils as the club has had to withstand a shocking amount of injuries this season.
Despite currently nursing a knock, Evans has played 24 times this season and been vital in some wins such as his performance versus Luton Town where he came off the bench to make a scarcely believable 11 clearances in 45 minutes of football.
Pundits such as Gary Neville have already admitted that they were wrong to write Evans off before a ball was kicked and his captain, Bruno Fernandes, has jokingly compared the player to Zinedine Zidane.
Now, speaking to Cool FM News , Rio Ferdinand has had his say on the Ulsterman’s Indian summer.
“He’s been arguably our best defender this year and that says a lot,” he said.
“When he first signed, and even though he’s my mate and I played with him, I was like: ‘Flippin’ hell, how are we signing Jonny at this time?! Are we going backwards?’”
“But he’s come in and when he has been asked to do a job, he’s done it really, really well”.
“I was with him the other day at the training ground and he has surprised himself in terms of the amount of game-time he’s had, but then you’ve got to go out there and produce and play”.
“That’s testament to him as a professional footballer as well because you’ve got to prepare yourself and you’ve got to be ready for those moments, and he has been so good luck to him”.
With Lisandro Martinez hopefully returning for tomorrow’s crucial fixture against Brentford, or at least in the near future, hopefully Evans will not need to be called on as much as he has over the past few months.
However, it is safe to say, if he is, the 106-times capped Northern Ireland international will be ready to make a contribution.
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