Nigel Pearson has stressed the importance of securing a victory over Sunderland to "reignite the confidence" in his Leicester City squad.

Leicester was on cloud nine after a sensational 5-3 Premier League victory over Manchester United two months ago, but has been brought back down to earth with a bang since then.

The Midlands outfit has picked up only one point in its six top-flight matches following victory over United, and that was from a 2-2 home draw against bottom club Burnley.

Leicester has slipped into the relegation zone as a result of its dismal run and Pearson knows it must stop the rot ahead of Saturday's clash with Gus Poyet's side at the King Power Stadium.

He said: "We do need to get back to winning ways to reignite the confidence, that's a very important factor of how we go about the game. Ultimately we want to get the right result regardless of how we play, it's about finding a way to get the right result."

Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher is expected to start after recovering from a knock sustained during Scotland's Euro 2016 qualifying win over Republic of Ireland last Friday.

Pearson is wary of the threat posed by the former Wolves striker, but has called on his side to provide the quality that has been lacking in the final third.

The Leicester manager said: "He (Fletcher) looks fit and is a very dangerous player in and around the box, we must make sure concentration is such that we are able to deal with their threats.

"For the most part this season we've defended pretty well, where we've been undone is quality on their part. We have got to turn our run around by performing ourselves, and create opportunity for our attacking players."

Sunderland has moved up to 14th in the table after following up a 3-1 victory at Crystal Palace by drawing 1-1 with Everton last time out, but victory for Leicester will see it go above the Wearsiders on goal difference.

Poyet has revealed that Ricky Alvarez and Sebastian Coates could feature after returning to full training following knee and thigh injuries.

Emanuele Giaccherini is making progress with his recovery from an ankle injury, but will not feature on Saturday and the same goes for Billy Jones (hamstring). Patrick van Aanholt is also sidelined with a shoulder injury

Leicester trio Moore (illness), Wes Morgan (foot) and Ritchie De Laet (back) are all available, but Dean Hammond (calf) and Matthew Upson (foot) will play no part.