Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided a timeline on the recovery of Alex Moreno and Jacob Ramsey, with the pair still sidelined due to injury.
Moreno has yet to feature this season as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury he sustained in the penultimate game of last season. While the Spaniard appeared to be closing in on a comeback last month, he suffered a setback which pushed his return back, and his absence has undoubtedly been a blow.
READ MORE: Villa provide Zaniolo update ahead of West Ham clash
As for Ramsey, the 22-year-old returned from a foot injury he picked up over the summer and appeared to be building his playing time back up, while also scoring a superb goal in our win over Brighton earlier this month.
However, he suffered a recurrence of that foot injury, and has since missed our last few games as a result, with concerns over how long he might now spend on the sidelines again along with Moreno.
Fortunately, Emery delivered positive news on Friday in his pre-West Ham press conference, as he confirmed that the Villa pair are making progress in their respective recoveries, and he believes that they should be back in contention in around two or three weeks.
“We are patient with them because they are progressing very well,” he is quoted as saying by BirminghamLive. “The last step they didn’t do being available to play two or three weeks ago.
“Moreno was training with us but the last step to be ready to play 100 per cent feeling good, he didn’t do. We stopped him.
“Now, he will need time, not a lot because now he is progressing well, to be available not only to train with us, to be available to play official matches.
“Jacob Ramsey we stopped him as well. He had a small injury again. Now we have to do the steps ahead with him being clear that he is going to be coming back 100 per cent in the level we need.
“Hopefully not more than two or three weeks.”
Time will tell if that touted timeline holds up and the influential Villa duo are back in the matchday squad, as with a difficult fixture schedule ahead in terms of the volume of games, we could certainly do with getting our full squad back together.
Following our clash with West Ham this weekend, we travel to AZ Alkmaar for our Europa Conference League encounter in midweek, and that’s swiftly followed by games against Luton Town, Nottingham Forest, AZ at home and Fulham in the space of a few weeks before the next international break.
Aside from the fact that both Moreno and Ramsey are so important to the way we play under Emery given the quality they add in both phases of the game, there has been a heavier workload on the likes of Lucas Digne and Nicolo Zaniolo in their absence, and so it’s vital we get them back, fully healthy, as soon as possible.