Aston Villa playmaker Emiliano Buendia continues to share promising progress updates on his recovery from his serious knee injury.
The 27-year-old hasn’t featured all season after sustaining the setback in training just before the campaign got underway last August, and his absence has proven to be a massive blow.
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Buendia scored five goals and provided three assists in 41 appearances last season, but particularly under Unai Emery, he was a fundamental player who was an ever-present for the Spaniard, and was showing clear signs of growing into his role.
Sadly though, we’ve been robbed of a year of seeing him build on that and continuing to establish himself as a key figure for the Villa boss, as instead he’s had to go through a gruelling rehabilitation process over the past nine months.
Fortunately, we’ve started to see some really promising signs through the updates that he has provided on social media, but also through the club who shared that he had resumed individual training on the grass at Bodymoor Heath last month.
While there’s still a significant way to go before we’ll see him back on the pitch, there was more good news from Buendia this week, as seen in his Instagram story below, where he revealed that he’s now back working with the ball and going through drills with the Villa coaching staff.
Not only does he still have to return to group training and then most likely get minutes at U21s level to build his match fitness and sharpness, but with a lack of games remaining this season, it’s unclear if he’ll be ready to feature before the end of the campaign, let alone make a telling impact.
In turn, perhaps there is already an acknowledgement that he’s working towards being available for a full pre-season, and he’ll hopefully be ready to come back stronger next season to provide us with a massive boost.
That said, along with Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara, there is no doubt their respective returns will provide the Villa supporters with a real lift, and being present when they get that reception will be a memorable moment.
For now though, Buendia’s focus will be on continuing his hard work to get back into contention, and hopefully he can now tick the final few boxes of his recovery without any late setbacks.
😍 Emi Buendiaaa…
👊🏽🟣🔵#avfc #UTV pic.twitter.com/benDYb1U5u
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) April 8, 2024
