Aston Villa have been handed a boost as Leon Bailey has travelled and is part of the squad for our Champions League clash with Young Boys.
The 27-year-old suffered a hamstring injury in our win over Leicester City prior to the international break, and having gone into this past weekend’s win over Everton as a doubt, he was absent from the matchday squad having failed to sufficiently recover in time.
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While he’s had a slow start to the new campaign, there’s no doubt over how important the Jamaican international is for Unai Emery given the creativity, pace and attacking threat he provides on the right wing, and so getting him back as soon as possible will be a major boost.
As seen in the image below taken from Villa’s X update as the squad boarded the plane for Switzerland on Monday morning, Bailey has made the trip and is part of the squad for our Champions League opener against Young Boys.
Further, The Express and Star’s Matt Maher has since reported that Emery has confirmed that Bailey is part of the squad tomorrow and will train with his teammates on Monday evening ahead of the encounter.
Although it remains to be seen if Bailey is fit enough to feature, or if he is set for a limited role as he works his way back from the setback, it’s still an important boost heading into the weekend for our clash with Wolves that he’s recovered enough to at least be back in contention.
While the Villa medical and coaching staff will not want to take any risks, he’s clearly making good progress in his recovery, and hopefully he can rediscover his best form in the coming weeks.
Emery is also expected to welcome back Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara soon as they continue to participate in group training, and so as Villa look to compete on multiple fronts with the Carabao Cup also getting underway next week, it’s vital that we have as close to a fully-fit squad available as possible to give Emery the tools he needs to continue to oversee our progress and bring success to the club.
Good to see Leon Bailey make the trip with the rest of the Villa squad to Switzerland for tomorrow night’s game. Hopefully recovered and ready to feature, but if not, positive sign ahead of the weekend at least.#avfc #UTV 🟣🔵 pic.twitter.com/rjmNSqxOnC
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) September 16, 2024
