Aston Villa ace Emiliano Buendia is continuing his recovery work over our winter break after suffering a serious knee injury last August.
The 27-year-old sustained the setback on the eve of the current Premier League campaign in training, and particularly in recent weeks, his absence is starting to be felt more.
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While Villa have had an excellent campaign thus far, the Argentine’s creativity and quality in the final third has been missed, especially as sides now begin to sit back and defend deeper against us given the threat that we’ve proven we can pose.
Speaking in August last year after Buendia picked up the injury blow, Unai Emery noted that it would likely mean a lengthy spell on the sidelines, with a touted timeline of anywhere between six and eight months, as per BirminghamLive.
If all goes to plan and the Villa playmaker can avoid any setbacks between now and his comeback, he could feature again this season, with a return to training hopefully a realistic target for March.
It would provide us with such an important boost to not only have him back given what he can produce on the pitch, but the squad will undoubtedly be buoyed by the lift that his return will give all concerned.
With the Villa players given time off this week as we’re not back in action until January 26 when we face Chelsea in the FA Cup, a number of our South American contingent have opted to head to Dubai for some warm-weather training and to spend time with their families.
As seen in the image below taken from Buendia’s Instagram story, both he and Alex Moreno are continuing to work hard and get their gym work in, and the Argentine is looking good in terms of being able to go through his paces with a personalised session as he rebuilds his strength and fitness.
It’s the latest of many updates that he has provided throughout his recovery process, and it’s clear that he’s making progress in strengthening the injured knee and leg to move closer towards a return to training.
We’ve not heard any significant updates from either Buendia or Emery in recent months, albeit the Villa boss does continue to mention him and Tyrone Mings in his team news update in press conferences.
It’s hoped that we hear from them soon to provide insight on whether or not returning this season is a genuine possibility, but given the severity of the injury and the desire to avoid taking any risks at this stage of his recovery, the Villa medical and coaching staff will no doubt be meticulous in their strategy to get Buendia back to peak condition before he makes his comeback.
Emi Buendia & Alex Moreno putting the work in during the break 👊🏽🟣🔵#avfc #UTV pic.twitter.com/OOS2Z0nYzE
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) January 17, 2024
