Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has confirmed that both Emiliano Martinez and Pau Torres missed our win over Basel in the Europa League due to injury.
Villa secured a 2-1 win in Switzerland on Thursday night in a crucial boost for our chances of direct qualification to the knockout phase of the competition, but there were two notable absentees ahead of kick-off.
Neither Martinez nor Torres made the matchday squad, and there was concern that the pair had been forced to miss out due to injury, with the former hindered by a back problem recently while the latter was forced off in the latter stages of our win over Arsenal last weekend.
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Speaking to the media in his post-match press conference, Emery confirmed that the Villa duo did indeed miss out due to injury, and so we’ll await another update from him ahead of our clash with West Ham United in the Premier League on Sunday to determine if they will be ready to return or not.
“Both they are injured,” Emery said, as quoted by BirminghamLive. “Now we have Konsa and Lindelof both centre-backs and Lamare Bogarde can play there. His versatility is fantastic. We will need players to feel comfortable, when we have players injured like at left centre-back.
“He [Martinez] has a problem in his back. He is not feeling 100% well. Tomorrow and Saturday we will check him again. Hopefully he is getting better for Sunday.
“He had the back problem last week and he was not feeling 100% well. We decided to stop him for this match. Hopefully he can feel better for Sunday. It is not a big problem. Last week in Brighton he felt it.”
Based on his comments above, it could be argued that Martinez’s issue is one that he will have to manage and can play through, but the discussion around having Victor Lindelof and Lamare Bogarde available as options to play at centre-half would perhaps hint at Pau facing a spell out, with Tyrone Mings already sidelined.
It’s hoped that that is not the case as the Spaniard has been instrumental in our upturn in form in recent months and has taken a big step forward from a defensive perspective this season to pair with his composure and class on the ball, and so losing him for any period of time would be a major blow.
Time will tell if that’s the case, but with Lindelof impressing on Thursday and as Bogarde continues to produce mature and solid displays when called upon, it’s hoped that we have enough to deal with any potential absence of Pau, and similarly with Martinez as Marco Bizot is ready to continue to deputise.
