Claudio Ranieri has said that he has confidence in his squad amid a worsening injury crisis at Watford.

Ismaila Sarr, Nicolas Nkoulou and Ben Foster have all been ruled out with long term problems, while Emmanuel Dennis is also out for tomorrow night's visit from Chelsea.

The Italian said he was not going to get upset about the situation and instead is looking for those who will play to prove themselves as Premier League players.

"I’m confident, but of course if I had all my players, it’s better," said Ranieri. "But the club gave me a very good group of players and now who plays less, it's the right moment to show how they want to do in the Premier League.

"It's not enough to win the Championship, now they have to show what they can do in the Premier League, but I’m very confident.

"I don’t like to cry, I want to react I want my players to be positive, to be confident and fight to the end."

Ahead of a tough tie against the league leaders tomorrow the head coach urged his players to be more focused, echoing the words of his captain Moussa Sissoko, who said that too many individual mistakes were costing Watford this season.

Ranieri backed William Troost-Ekong in particular to emerge with fresh focus after his blunder that gifted Leicester City their opening goal at the weekend.

"It’s focus – focus on the match," he said when asked how his team could recover. "That was a mistake because he thought he was alone and said ‘okay I’ll leave the ball to the keeper’ but the keeper didn’t ask for the ball. Now I’m sure it never never can happen again because it would be very strange if it happened another time. I’m sure Will will be very focused and very determined in every match we play."

The Italian also said he and his players have been giving Troost-Ekong plenty of encouragement in the wake of the error, in order to help him react in a positive way.

"I think this is the right way," he said. "Also his teammates say 'come on, that can happen' we have to react.

"In life people can slow down, but it’s important how they react and I’m sure Will will react very very well."