Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has confirmed that Philippe Coutinho will miss our remaining two games this season due to injury.
The 30-year-old had been sidelined since our defeat to Arsenal on February 18, but he returned to make the bench against Wolves earlier this month as he neared a comeback.
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However, after suffering a fresh blow ahead of our win over Tottenham last time out, there were doubts that we would see the Brazilian playmaker again, and that has turned out to be the case as Emery provided an update on his condition on Thursday and ruled him out of our games against Liverpool and Brighton.
“Philippe Coutinho is still injured, and the other players are ready to play,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “We’re going to wait for the training session tomorrow morning and if everything is going well, the players available are the same players we had last week.
“Today Calum Chambers was sick but I think tomorrow he is going to be ready to try to travel with us.
“I talked with him [Coutinho] this week; he’s a little bit unlucky with his month because I didn’t see him play matches like I want. But, of course, with the injuries coming, we have to be patient as well, now we are going to wait for his recovery.
“This year, he’s not going to play again until the end of this season because we are finishing in two weeks.”
It’s been a difficult year for Coutinho as he has failed to replicate the form he showed when he initially joined us, having contributed just one goal and no assists in 22 appearances this season.
Injuries have of course been a major problem, but he still had a limited role when available under Emery and so question marks will naturally be raised over his future at Villa and whether or not he’ll still be in the squad beyond the summer.
While it had been hoped that he still had plenty to offer and could rediscover top form, his reliability has been a real problem this season and his struggles to create in the final third have added to the struggle. In turn, coupled with his likely high wages, Villa may well be open to listening to offers at the end of the season to try and green light an exit.
It’s an area in which we need to improve this summer as although Emery has leaned heavily on Emiliano Buendia since being appointed, there is a lack of consistent creativity and quality in the final third to provide service for Ollie Watkins, and with Coutinho now unable to try and stake his claim, it could well be time to move on and add fresh competition and depth.