Aston Villa secured a 3-3 draw with Leeds Utd on Wednesday night, but there was concern over Emiliano Buendia and Philippe Coutinho.
Buendia was forced off on the hour mark after taking a knock to his hamstring area, while Coutinho was replaced with around 12 minutes remaining having shown some discomfort as he clutched his knee after taking a shot from distance.
READ MORE: Aston Villa 3-3 Leeds Utd: Match report, highlights as Ramsey, Coutinho shine
With the South American pair being so influential and such a big threat for us in the final third in the last few games, Steven Gerrard will undoubtedly hope to have them available at full health between now and the end of the season.
In turn, seeing both playmakers come off in midweek would have been worrying for Villa fans, but Gerrard allayed fears after the game and provided a positive update on the condition of the duo.
“He’s [Buendia] received a bang so it’s a knock and it’s an impact injury,” he is quoted as saying by the Birmingham Mail. “He’s obviously very sore at the moment but, if he’s telling the truth, I’d rather have an impact bang rather than a muscle situation so I’m hoping it’s going to be days rather than weeks and, hopefully, we can get him ready for the weekend.
“He was obviously struggling with it. He wanted to carry on and I admire that but it was clear that we had to make a change. We’ll try and get him ready for the weekend.”
As for Coutinho, Gerrard added: “It was just a bit of tiredness. He had a bit of cramp in a few areas. As I say, we’re still working on his physical condition. We’re still trying to improve that. He’s getting better and better, and stronger. That was just precaution with cramp. He was running out of energy. He gave a lot to the game like a lot of the players did.
“There’s no issues and I’m sure, with a couple of days of recovery, he’ll be OK for the weekend as well.”
It sounds as though Coutinho is better placed to be involved when we face Newcastle Utd on Sunday, but time will tell if Buendia can recover from his knock and be available to feature.
As noted above, the pair have enjoyed a growing influence on our play in the last few outings, and so it would certainly be a blow for Villa if we’re without them for any period of time. Particularly with Leon Bailey and Bertrand Traore perhaps not quite ready to start after injury and international duty respectively, it remains to be seen if Gerrard is forced to make changes to his starting line-up this weekend.
