Aston Villa defender Lucas Digne has posted an update as he continues his hard work in recovering from a hamstring injury.
The 30-year-old has made 26 appearances so far this season, providing one goal and five assists to go with his defensive work, as he was a key figure for us through the first half of the campaign, particularly with Alex Moreno out injured.
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Unfortunately, he suffered a hamstring injury against Man Utd on Boxing Day, and has subsequently missed our last two games against Burnley and Middlesbrough respectively.
Speaking prior to the Burnley game, Unai Emery told the media in his pre-match press conference that Digne was likely to be sidelined for around 20-25 days, and so that puts him back as being available towards the end of January or early February.
Moreno has returned to the Villa XI and solidified his place in the side, but as we look to compete on multiple fronts in the coming weeks and months, we’ll ideally have both of our left-back options healthy and available for a key run of fixtures to ensure we have competition and depth.
As seen in the image below, the Frenchman posted an Instagram story on Tuesday showing that he’s busy working hard on his recovery, with the caption: ‘No day off’.
Fortunately, Villa have a more relaxed January compared to recent months as we only have three more fixtures to come, although the schedule certainly does ramp up as we head into February.
In turn, it’s hoped that Digne is making progress and will be ready to return on time to provide us with an important boost, as it’s vital that we don’t overload Moreno now and risk him picking up a knock.
Having secured our place in the fourth round of the FA Cup, with the Europa Conference League set to return in March and with our ongoing Premier League aspirations this season, it’s fundamental that Villa avoid any further injury setbacks as we also await the returns of Pau Torres, Youri Tielemans and Robin Olsen to move us closer to being at full strength.