Aston Villa defender Kortney Hause has confirmed that he has resumed full training with the squad at Bodymoor Heath after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The 28-year-old returned from a loan spell at Watford over the summer, but a knee injury and issues off the back of that ensured his last competitive appearance came in September 2022.
READ MORE: Assessing potential Villa exits this month after quartet paired with departures
In turn, on a personal level, he’ll be thrilled with the fact that he’s now back in full training, as per his social media post below, with several of his Villa teammates showing their delight to see him back too in the comments.
That said, the expectation is that it will be an important development towards an exit from the club, as it’s difficult to see him getting a fresh opportunity under Unai Emery with Pau Torres, Clement Lenglet and eventually Tyrone Mings ahead of him in the pecking order.
Hause’s contract at Villa runs until June 2025, and so the club will arguably look to send him out on loan if possible this month to get him playing regularly and ultimately put himself in the shop window to secure a permanent move elsewhere in the summer.
That would make sense for all concerned given we’d move him off the wage bill and Hause would get a more prominent role elsewhere, and so having returned to training and hopefully put his injury nightmare behind him, things start to fall into place for that to happen.
There had been speculation over Lenglet’s future this month as it had been suggested that his loan stint could be cut short and that he would return to Barcelona.
While Hause could have emerged as an option for Emery to fill that potential void given his ability to play on the left side of a centre-half partnership, the Villa boss has stressed that he wants to keep the Frenchman at the club until the end of the season.
In turn, that would suggest that Hause will now move closer to a fresh exit this month if he can maintain and build his fitness and health in the coming weeks, and hopefully a solution can be found that suits all concerned.
