Aston Villa face Crystal Palace in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery will be hoping for positive news on the injury front later this week.
Villa will hope that the international break came at a good time after a poor run of form across all competitions, but it’s imperative we secure a positive result on Saturday to get back on track and rebuild some confidence.
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It had been hoped that we would be able to get back to having as close to a fully-fit squad available as possible, but after both Jacob Ramsey and Boubacar Kamara sustained injuries in our defeat to Liverpool, there was more bad news over the break with the likes of Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Ian Maatsen returning early after picking up knocks.
While we’ll get a full update on Friday in Emery’s pre-match press conference, there were some important clues in training on Tuesday as Matty Cash, Torres and Maatsen were all spotted reporting for group training, and so it’s hoped that they will all be available, with more positive news to follow.
Cash was sidelined prior to the break with a calf injury, and so it appears as though he’s on track to return against Palace in what will be an important boost as we’ve had to shift Konsa across to cover for him at right-back in his absence.
Given both Torres and Maatsen are back working with the group already would suggest that their niggles were nothing serious, and so particularly in the former’s case, it’s vital that he has avoided a setback and will not need to spend time on the sidelines getting treatment.
Time will tell if Konsa, Ross Barkley, Amadou Onana, Ramsey and Kamara are available for selection or not this weekend as they all have suffered issues over the past fortnight, but hopefully the two-week break has given them time to recover and hopefully put themselves back in contention to minimise the amount of time they might be ruled out for.
Good to see Matty Cash and Pau Torres so far at least out for training with the rest of the group today. Hopefully more positive news across the board ahead of the weekend 🤞🏽#avfc #UTV 🟣🔵 pic.twitter.com/6rmnqFq6qr
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) November 19, 2024