Aston Villa have shared footage from training on Monday, and there was a significant boost with Jacob Ramsey spotted joining the rest of the group for the session.
The 23-year-old endured a campaign disrupted by injuries last year, as he was limited to just 21 appearances across all competitions.
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His absence was a blow for us given his quality and ability to be an influential cog in Unai Emery’s side, as he had proven in the previous season following the Spanish tactician’s appointment, and so it had been hoped that he would return from his latest layoff at the back-end of last season to feature this summer.
Concern was once again raised though given he was absent from our pre-season outings against Walsall and Spartak Trnava, having failed to even be named in either squad, but fortunately there was good news to start the week, as seen in Villa’s tweet below.
Ramsey missed the last 12 games in the Premier League last season due to a toe injury, while he began the campaign on the sidelines too with a foot issue.
In turn, he has hopefully had the summer to recover and rest, and is now in a position to step up his preparations as the Villa squad will fly out to the USA this week for the most important part of our pre-season schedule as it’s where the bulk of our work will likely get done.
While it would have been ideal to see Ramsey and the likes of Emiliano Buendia and Tyrone Mings feature over the past week, the most important thing for that trio in particular is to be in a position to least make the trip with the rest of the squad in the coming days, and start to ramp up their workload.
We’ll hopefully see them all feature against Columbus Crew, RB Leipzig and Club America as the tour progresses, as it’s pivotal that they get minutes to build their match fitness back up and regain their sharpness and confidence on the pitch.
Based on this latest update, it looks as though Ramsey may well be on schedule to do so, which is a vital boost in itself given he adds more quality to our attacking options, and time will tell how far behind Buendia and Mings are as we look to start the new season with as close to a fully-fit squad as possible.
Back on the grind. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/Yxw2C991kA
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 22, 2024