Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has confirmed that both Emiliano Martinez and Pau Torres will be assessed ahead of our clash with West Ham United on Sunday.
The influential duo missed our win over FC Basel in the Europa League on Thursday night, with Martinez continuing to struggle with a back issue that sidelined him earlier this month at Brighton.
As for Torres, there hasn’t been too much detail on his setback, but he was forced off in the latter stages of our win over Arsenal, and so it remains to be seen how long he might be sidelined for.
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Naturally, the hope is that the pair are both able to return this weekend when we head to West Ham looking for a ninth consecutive win across all competitions, but a late decision is expected to be made.
“We need now to know how they are, the players after yesterday – the players who played and the players who were injured,” said the Villa boss at Friday’s pre-match media conference.
“We are training now and we are going to train tomorrow morning. And then travel to London.
“I don’t know.
“But, of course, how we are performing collectively when there are some players out, being injured, small or long injuries, I am so happy with how they are responding.
“We need every player ready to play.”
The club’s update noted that both Martinez and Torres will be assessed, while separately confirming that Tyrone Mings and Ross Barkley remain long-term absentees.
In turn, there is hope that the defensive duo haven’t sustained anything too serious and should be back if not this weekend, then perhaps against Manchester United on December 21.
Emery will take confidence from Victor Lindelof’s performance against Basel as he put in a solid shift while deputising for Torres, and it’s hoped that if the Swedish stalwart is needed again this weekend, he’ll be ready to back up that display with another strong outing in London.
Let’s hope that they are both available because it won’t be an easy match and we will need our strongest team