Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has allayed early fears over the injuries sustained by Douglas Luiz and John McGinn in our 2-0 win over Tottenham on Sunday.
McGinn was replaced after 78 minutes by Philippe Coutinho after he appeared to pull up and grab his hamstring. Although he did continue to move around after sustaining the issue, it was clear that the smart decision was to take him off and avoid any further damage.
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As for Luiz, he came off in the 82nd minute after seemingly suffering a knee injury as he was caught by a challenge awkwardly, but he was also back on the pitch after the game to celebrate with his teammates and appeared to be moving ok.
However, with a short turnaround to our next fixture against Wolves on Wednesday night, there is little time for the players to rest and recover, and so any knock in this period of the schedule could see them miss time.
Speaking after the game, Emery seemed to allay fears that either McGinn or Luiz had suffered anything serious.
“I don’t know exactly now, but maybe because they run a lot! Of course we can have some injuries, but hopefully it’s not a big injury for them,” he told Sky Sports, as reported by BirminghamLive.
While further tests will of course reveal exact details about the problems suffered by the midfield pair, it’s a good sign that Emery has downplayed the knocks as ultimately managers do know quite soon after the game as to whether or not it’s something that will sideline their player for a significant period of time.
We’ll await the results of those further tests to be sure, but it’s hoped that both Luiz and McGinn have avoided any serious blows that could sideline them, as ideally the Villa boss will want to limit the number of changes he has to make to a winning side.
Should they be forced to sit out though, Emery does have options. It could be an opportunity for Morgan Sanson to step in after he returned to the Villa bench on Sunday, while Jacob Ramsey will hopefully be closing in on a return to action from an injury setback of his own this week.