A groin strain is likely to restrict the England striker to the bench for today’s FA Cup third-round tie when he makes his first return to the club where he made his name.

Vardy’s move to Leicester in 2012 earned Fleetwood £1.75million in total – a record transfer fee for a non-League player – and helped put the club on the map. But longest-serving defender Nathan Pond remembers him as a cheeky Sheffield lad who liked a practical joke or two.

“He was always pranking,” said defender Pond, who has already messaged Vardy asking for his shirt. “The moment he walked through the door you could see he was a confident lad. I can still see a picture him with a can of Monster or Red Bull in his hand at 9am before training. So he was always the loudest person there, always lively.

“I remember one time the chef was making an omelette in the morning and then when he went to his car he discovered he had a pile of eggs all cling filmed up around it so he couldn’t get in it.

“No one would ever see him do it but there was a group of players – including him – who were always up to stuff. If anything happened to your car or gear, you knew it was one of them.

“Usually on a Friday we’d have small-sided games and it’d be Scousers v the Rest – Mancs and others. Before the games we’d decide the forfeits. It could be ‘bare arse’ – where you’d line up and people would shoot balls at you – or ‘naked lapada’.

“Houses overlooked the training ground at the time so it’d be, ‘right, a lap naked in your boots’ – and one time Vardy’s team did get beat and he had to do the naked lap.”

Even Fleetwood Steve Curwood did not escape Vardy’s pranks – he returned to his hotel room once on a team trip to Scotland to find it had been trashed.

“I think you would call it a ‘respectful’ ransacking,” said Curwood.

“He carefully placed a lamp on the floor, moved a cushion, tipped a chair up and hid some shoes.

"I don’t think the manager Micky Mellon was best pleased. He was a bit of a lad but he certainly delivered on the pitch and made us a lot of money.

"We would make even more if he ever moved because of the 30 per cent sell-on clause we put in the deal with Leicester.”

Fleetwood boss Uwe Rosler did not have the ‘pleasure’ of managing live wire Vardy but he has paid tribute to what he did for the club in his one season, when he scored 34 goals in 42 games to steer them to promotion to the Football league just seven years after they had been in the North West Counties League.

“Jamie Vardy was a massive milestone in the history of this football club,” said Rosler.

“He was the first player where the club’s business model of buying players cheap, developing them and them selling on came to fruition.

"With his transfer fee, the club were able to put a lot of things in place.”

Rosler, however, admits he will be hugely relieved if jet-heeled Vardy remains on the bench as his League One team bid to reach the fourth round for the first time.