Injury boost as key Villa figure provides positive update

Aston Villa defender Alex Moreno has posted an update on his recovery from injury, and it’s certainly sounding positive for the Spaniard.

The 30-year-old quickly established himself as a starter at left-back last season after arriving in January, producing consistently impressive performances with his improving defensive displays coupled with an ability to provide great width and an attacking threat down our left flank.

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In 19 Premier League outings, he contributed three assists, but his overall influence was clear and he’ll hope to go from strengthen to strengthen in his first full campaign in England.

Having become a key figure in Unai Emery’s system and style of play, it was a blow to lose him to injury at the end of last season, and while we managed to successfully achieve our objective without him, it’s far from ideal that he has spent this summer in rehabilitation and recovering from his setback.

“We will be without Alex Moreno,” Emery said in his pre-match press conference ahead of our final game of last season against Brighton. “He had surgery last week on his hamstring. We are going to follow it; he’s going to be out for two to three months, perhaps back early August, OK, so it’s two or three months.”

As seen in the image below, Moreno has posted an update on Instagram with the caption: “One week less. I’m back soon”.

While that aligns with the timeline provided by Emery last month, it’s hoped that he is perhaps even ahead of schedule and will be able to play some part in our pre-season schedule to get valuable minutes and build his match fitness back up.

With the rest of the squad in the USA now for the Premier League Summer Series, Moreno will continue to receive treatment at Bodymoor Heath, but with friendlies against Lazio and Valencia at the start of August, time will tell if the Spanish ace can recover in time to play some part in those outings.

Villa will of course avoid taking any risks that might see him suffer a late setback by aggravating the injury again, and so it’s just hoped that Moreno doesn’t miss much of the start of the new season, which gets underway on August 12.

Lucas Digne will no doubt step in and fill that void for the time being, with the Frenchman having the chance to solidify his place in the side now as Villa have good competition for that role heading into a big year.

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