Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has revealed that midfielder Ross Barkley could be ruled out for up to 12 weeks after suffering a knee injury.
The 31-year-old sustained the blow shortly after coming on in our 1-0 win over Wolves this past weekend, having only recently become a consistent presence in the matchday squad after injury woes and personal issues had prevented him from featuring to start the season.
Unfortunately, he is now set for another lengthy spell out, and that will be a major disappointment not only for the Villa ace who will be desperate to contribute this season, but also for Emery, who is now without a key tactical option in midfield for an extended period of time.
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Meanwhile, the Villa boss also confirmed that Tyrone Mings remains sidelined due to a hamstring injury, and he won’t be available for selection for another month either.
“Tyrone Mings is out for tomorrow, I think four weeks more to be available,” Emery told the media, as per VillaTV.
“Ruled out as well is Ross Barkley, his injury is more than we expected. I don’t know exactly, but maybe 8-10-12 weeks. Hopefully a little bit less.
“It’s a pity because we were now getting the performances with him and he was helping us a lot, he was progressively so close to be in the starting XI.”
It certainly now raises the question over what Villa will do with Barkley next summer, as his current contract is set to expire, but the club has an option to extend his stay for a further 12 months if they wish to do so.
In the short-term future, time will tell if we feel as though we need something more in that department in January for the second half of the current campaign, and if we can rely on Barkley to provide competition and depth beyond that or if we have to look elsewhere for a better solution.
For Barkley, his focus will be on getting back to full health as soon as possible, and hopefully he can still enjoy a strong finish to the season and prove that he is capable of being an important option for Emery in midfield, not only in allowing the likes of Youri Tielemans to rest when needed, but to also provide us with quality and experience as we compete across multiple competitions.
