Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash is reportedly set for a month on the sidelines after suffering a hamstring injury against Arsenal.
The 27-year-old appeared to be a doubt for the encounter with the Gunners this past weekend after coming off in the latter stages of our win over West Ham Utd, as he was seen holding his hamstring area as he made his way off.
READ MORE: Promising signs from Villa youngster as injury setback could now lead to important role
Despite not seeming to appear in training footage during the week, the Polish international was named in our starting line-up, but lasted just 16 minutes before he had to be replaced with his hamstring again the focus.
It’s unclear if that was a concern going into the game or not, but according to The Athletic, his injury is now expected to rule him out for a month.
Kosta Nedeljkovic took his place on Saturday evening, and after overcoming a nervous start, the 18-year-old settled and started to improve in what would have been a daunting challenge in his first home appearance. However, after impressing over pre-season, he showed positive glimpses of his ability again.
While Ezri Konsa is also an option for Unai Emery, given his versatility was often utilised last season as he shifted across to right-back to allow Diego Carlos to start at centre-half, Emery noted in his post-match press conference this weekend that he’s made a change to our structure and build up, and so he prefers not to go down that route for now.
In turn, the expectation is that Nedeljkovic could now be set for an extended run in the side, but time will tell if Villa are active in the final week of the transfer window and opt to bring in a reinforcement in that department to ensure we have enough quality to not only cope with Cash’s absence, but also improve the squad moving forward.
Nevertheless, Nedeljkovic has shown great potential and a brilliant determination to improve, adapt and develop his game to suit Emery’s needs since he arrived in the summer, having been signed from Red Star Belgrade in January.
Naturally, given his inexperience at only 18 years of age and with 82 minutes of Premier League football to his name thus far, he is going to need patience and will have to learn quickly, but given what Emery has said over the past few days and coupled with his decision on Saturday, it looks as though the young Serbian defender could be the solution as we head to Leicester City this weekend.
