Aston Villa defender Diego Carlos has dismissed concern over his fitness after missing our final pre-season game against Valencia on Saturday night.
The 30-year-old wasn’t included in the squad that featured at the Mestalla, and naturally that led to fears over his availability, given he has continued to work hard this summer to make a complete comeback after his Achilles injury last season.
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Fortunately, it doesn’t appear as though he has suffered a setback of any significance, as he took to Instagram as seen in the images below to provide an update, and insisted that he’ll be fine for our trip to Newcastle Utd next weekend.
Carlos has logged valuable minutes in pre-season to continue to work on his fitness and form and get back to a level he was at prior to his bitterly disappointing injury blow last year.
While competition is fierce in defence with Pau Torres also now battling for a starting berth along with Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa, the Brazilian will still have a key role to play for us this season as we look to compete on multiple fronts, with the potential for almost 60 games in the upcoming campaign.
In turn, there was an element of concern that Carlos had perhaps suffered a fresh blow which prevented him from being involved in the 2-1 win over Valencia, but it’s good to hear from him directly to confirm that all is well.
That said, it’s highly unlikely that he will start at St James’ Park, and so Emery has a big decision to make in terms of the make-up of his backline for what promises to be a difficult Premier League season opener.
Torres has featured at left-back in pre-season which in turn opens the door for the Mings and Konsa partnership to remain in tact in the middle, with Matty Cash getting the nod at right-back.
Conversely, if the Spaniard isn’t entirely comfortable and settled yet in that role, Lucas Digne could start in his place in a more familiar back-four that we saw last season, or Torres could replace one of Mings or Konsa in the middle.
It’s a key decision that Emery will have to get right so we start the season with a solid defensive display on the road, but he’ll seemingly have Carlos also giving him a selection headache moving forward too with no new spell on the sidelines expected.
All good on Diego Carlos. Concern after his absence last night, but man himself allays any fears 👊🏽🟣🔵#avfc #UTV pic.twitter.com/WDOyVZkvTn
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) August 6, 2023