Former Leicester City star Keith Gillespie has told Football FanCast that Jonny Evans has been so good at the Foxes, he has been worth the same £80m fee as Harry Maguire.

The pair played together at the King Power Stadium, making 17 appearances together in the heart of the Leicester defence in 2018/19.

Gillespie played with Evans for Northern Ireland 12 times, and he believes that his countryman has carved out a place for himself as the best defender at Leicester.

So good was he alongside Maguire, he believes that it would have been easy to confuse the pair in terms of their transfer valuations.

Maguire moved to Manchester United for an £80m fee in 2019, a world-record price for a defender.

Speaking exclusively to FFC, Gillespie said: “They obviously played together at Leicester and you can sort of look at it when they were at Leicester and go, ‘well, which one of these is the 80 million pound player?’

"Jonny is that good."

He also believes that while Leicester have a number of excellent defenders, name-checking both Wesley Fofana and Caglar Soyuncu, Evans remains the first defender on Brendan Rodgers’ team-sheet.

Leicester are currently third in the Premier League table, and are a shoo-in to qualify for the Champions League, as they sit seven points clear of fifth-placed West Ham United.

He added: “He’s an important, integral part of that Leicester side.

“Those centre-halves, Fofana, the young French lad, Brendan Rodgers is obviously a big fan of his, Soyuncu has done really well but I think, out of them, Jonny’s the first centre-half on the teamsheet. He’s been very consistent over the years with his performances.”