Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided a squad-wide injury update with John McGinn and Lucas Digne set to hand him a boost this weekend.
Villa host Leicester City on Saturday afternoon looking to sustain an impressive run under Emery in the Premier League since he arrived, but with the visitors desperate for points to move away from the relegation zone, it promises to be a real battle.
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While Villa opted to allow several senior players to leave in January, Alex Moreno and Jhon Duran were the only arrivals to bolster Emery’s options, and so having players healthy and back from injury is going to crucial in the coming months as we hope to have enough quality depth and competition to maintain our recent form.
Having moved to within three points of sixth place in the Premier League standings, we’re in a good place and full of confidence, and so it will be a welcome added boost to have key individuals back at Emery’s disposal on Saturday.
“John McGinn is going to be in the squad, in the matchday 20,” said Emery,” as per Villa TV. “Diego Carlos is close to starting training with us but, of course, not tomorrow.
“Lucas Digne is training this week, normal with us.
“Bertrand Traoré is coming (back) next week, starting training progressively with us.
“And Jed Steer as well, he is not ready.”
That is great news on both McGinn and Digne, albeit it was expected given that they have both appeared in images from training this week working alongside the rest of the group.
McGinn has been sidelined since New Year’s Day with a hamstring issue, while Digne was forced off in our win over Leeds Utd last month with what appeared to be a shoulder injury.
They give us important options in their respective roles, and with Carlos closing in on a return to full training along with Traore, we’ll hopefully have a full group in the coming weeks as long as we hopefully avoid any fresh setbacks.
Emery has spoken a lot about wanting different profiles in order to have options to win games in different ways. In turn, he’ll relish having more players available, and it’s a real positive to have healthy competition in the squad to keep pushing them to improve further.