Brendan Rodgers said Leicester were "devastated" for Wesley Fofana as the club awaited further information regarding the "horrendous" injury the defender sustained on Wednesday evening.
Fofana was carried off on a stretcher in the second half of the Foxes' friendly win over Villarreal following a challenge from Fer Nino and subsequently revealed on social media that he had suffered a fractured fibula.
That was confirmed on Thursday afternoon by boss Rodgers, who said at his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday's Community Shield clash with Manchester City: "It was a horrendous injury for us and we are obviously devastated for him, and for everyone because he's a top-class young player. He's going to be a huge loss for us.
"Our medical team were fantastic on the night, they looked after him straight away, as soon as he got in our trauma doctor was able to put his ankle back in place, and then he got off to the hospital and our staff at the club along with the people in the hospital really looked after him.
"He'll have another scan today which will give us probably a clearer indication of how long he's going to be out. But of course it was a horrible injury for him and we were all thinking of him last night."
Rodgers also described the tackle on Fofana as "horrendous", and said there had been apologies from Villarreal.
He said: "It was a horrendous challenge, it wasn't a good challenge at all. But straight away Unai (Emery, the Villarreal coach) apologised, and afterwards there was an apology."
Rodgers added that he "wasn't overly happy" with how the game was officiated.
Leicester also have Fofana's fellow centre-back Jonny Evans sidelined, by a foot problem, and when asked about needing to strengthen in that position, Rodgers said: "We're definitely light in the area. Filip Benkovic has done really well over the course of pre-season, Daniel Amartey can also play there, has done well, but I don't think there's any doubt we're light and it's something we'll have to look at for sure.
"There are certainly people that are identified. The recruitment team have got a small list of players we would maybe look at. But we'll see what happens."
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