Aston Villa have been given another huge injury scare as Youri Tielemans was forced to pull out of Belgium’s encounter with Spain.
The 29-year-old has been a vital presence for Belgium throughout the tournament thus far, playing a decisive role in helping his country reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
However, despite being initially named in the starting line-up to face Spain on Friday, Tielemans was replaced after suffering an issue during the warm-up.
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According to HLN, the midfielder was forced to stop during the pre-match warm-up session due to an adductor issue, and it’s suggested that he may well be dealing with a tear.
In turn, we now face an anxious wait to determine the severity of the issue, and what it means in terms of whether or not Tielemans is going to be sidelined when he returns for pre-season.
It’s the second blow in a week that we’ve suffered after Amadou Onana sustained a torn ACL in Belgium’s win over the USA, and it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to feature for us at all in the upcoming season.
Although there is better news with Boubacar Kamara returning to full health ahead of pre-season, Unai Emery will now have a fresh reason to be concerned as he awaits an update on Tielemans.
Naturally, it’s hoped that the decision to pull him out was a precautionary one so as to avoid aggravating the injury problem, but we’ll now have to wait for an official update from the Belgian camp after the game to confirm whether or not our influential midfield metronome will have his preparations for the new campaign disrupted by an injury blow, and if so, for how long.
Ideally though, it was simply a precaution and Tielemans is able to make a quick recovery during his extended break once his World Cup campaign concludes.