Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided an injury update on both Emiliano Martinez and Marco Asensio.
The influential pair were absent in our win over Brentford on Saturday evening, with Ollie Watkins scoring against his former club to secure all three points for us in a 1-0 victory.
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Particularly in the case of Martinez given how fundamental he is for us between the posts, but Asensio too given his impact since joining us in January, it was a blow to see it confirmed that the duo were left out of the matchday squad this weekend.
While it was quickly reported that they were both forced to miss out due to injury, there was then an anxious wait to hear more from Emery as to the severity of the issues, and whether or not they would be missing for a significant period.
Fortunately, the Villa boss allayed fears and suggested that their respective muscle injuries aren’t major concerns, and so it’s hoped that they’ll be available for selection when we face Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
“They were not feeling good yesterday with some muscle pain, but not really important,” Emery told reporters after the game, as per BirminghamLive. “They weren’t available. We decided to avoid risk with both players. Hopefully both can recover for Wednesday.”
It’s hoped that proves to be an accurate assessment of their condition, as we could certainly do with their presence in the starting line-up next week given their experience, composure and ability to be decisive.
Although Villa hold a commanding 3-1 lead from the first leg in Bruges last week, our opponents showed that they can certainly pose a real threat and trouble us, and so we’ll need another top-level performance in the second leg to ensure we book our spot in the next round.
While Robin Olsen was able to keep a clean sheet in our win over Brentford and Emery does still have an array of attacking talent at his disposal in the final third without Asensio, it’s hoped that there’s positive news ahead of the game and that we’re moving towards having a full-strength squad available again.