Aston Villa have received a crucial injury boost as left-back Alex Moreno confirmed his return to group training on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old underwent surgery after sustaining a hamstring injury in our penultimate game of last season, and he has yet to feature since.
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While he had been expected to return last month, he suffered a setback that forced his comeback to be postponed, and so Villa boss Unai Emery has faced a wait to have the Spaniard back at his disposal.
Fortunately, it looks as though Moreno is now closing in on that comeback, as he confirmed in his post below that he has now returned to group training, and he was unsurprisingly delighted to take an important step towards returning to the pitch.
It’s hoped that he comes through these upcoming training sessions unscathed and is in a position to push for involvement in the coming weeks, as we’ll certainly be boosted by his return to add competition and depth in the left-back position.
Lucas Digne has done an excellent job in his absence both in terms of his form and reliability to give us a steady option in that role, but as we continue to try and compete on multiple fronts, we need Moreno back to rotate with his French teammate, at the very least.
There will be a fascinating battle ahead now to determine who sits top of the pecking order, as Moreno was brilliant following his January arrival from Real Betis, and he looks a perfect fit for Emery’s style and system.
That said, it should be a difficult task to displace Digne given his form while he’s been out, but the more immediate expectation is that Moreno will be gradually re-integrated and will see his workload build back up slowly to help his get his match fitness and sharpness back.
Villa face a busy schedule in the next two months with our European commitments in mind as well as the festive period, and so getting Moreno back now, and hopefully Jacob Ramsey isn’t too far behind him, is a major boost for Emery to sustain our positive start to the campaign by having as close to a fully-fit squad as possible.
I'm back with the team 😃🦁 #utv pic.twitter.com/4QF2MSvHnE
— Álex Moreno (@AlexMoreno) November 1, 2023