Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided updates on both Ollie Watkins and Diego Carlos after both came off in our 4-0 win over Ajax in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
Watkins was replaced in the 33rd minute after sustaining a nasty cut to his leg following a collision with Ajax goalkeeper Diant Ramaj, but he did initially manage to play on and score the opening goal of the game.
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However, after going down to the ground three times in total to receive treatment, he eventually signalled that he couldn’t continue, and so that was a major concern as soon as that became apparent given how influential he has been for us this season and our lack of firepower behind him.
As for Carlos, he was forced off in the 74th minute as he limped off the pitch having seemingly suffered a muscle injury, which was a big blow given he has only recently returned from a previous setback.
Further, albeit Ezri Konsa will return in the next round having served his suspension, Villa are already without a number of key individuals, and so potentially losing Carlos for weeks at such a critical time in the season would be a significant blow.
Emery though was remaining calm and positive on the situation, as he insisted that Watkins is likely to have a chance of being in contention to feature on Sunday against West Ham, but the likelihood is that Carlos will be ruled out.
“We don’t know exactly what the [injury] is [to Ollie Watkins],” he told TNT Sports. “Maybe for Sunday he could be available, because his injury wasn’t hard.
“Diego Carlos is something with his hamstring. Maybe he might not be available for Sunday, we are going to check tomorrow.”
Emery later told the press in his post-match press conference: “It is no more than a cut,” he said on Watkins, as per BirminghamLive. “I think he could be available for Sunday but we will have to wait for then.”
With Pau Torres, Konsa, Clement Lenglet and others at Emery’s disposal to compete for starting berths in our centre-half partnership in the coming weeks, we’ve got the quality and depth needed to continue to perform at a high level.
However, particularly in Europe with his experience and playing style, it would be a real blow to be without Carlos again, while with his tallies of 21 goals and 10 assists in 39 appearances, that speaks for itself when considering what we’d lose if Watkins weren’t able to make progress and pass a fitness test.
Having had so many devastating injury setbacks already this season with the likes of Tyrone Mings, Emiliano Buendia and Boubacar Kamara all being long-term absentees while numerous other key individuals have been sidelined at various times as well, it’s a real credit to Emery and the players to have kept us in the position we’re in now.
The Villa boss is expected to speak to the media again on Friday to discuss the West Ham game, and so it’s hoped that we get positive news on both Watkins and Carlos in terms of their availability, but also on Jacob Ramsey too as he continues his recovery work from a foot issue.