Aston Villa midfielder Tim Iroegbunam has reportedly missed our USA pre-season tour due to injury, while Jaden Philogene and Seb Revan could yet depart on loan this summer.
Iroegbunam, 20, featured for us in our pre-season game at Walsall earlier this month and the expectation was that the talented youngster would travel with the squad to continue to stake his claim for a role under Unai Emery.
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However, he wasn’t included in the 26-man travelling party, but the likelihood of that being down to an injury rather than question marks over his future increased after he wasn’t involved for our U21s in their last two outings over the past fortnight either.
While Iroegbunam spent the summer working his way back from an injury, it’s unclear if that same issue is still bothering him or he’s picked up a fresh setback, but as per The Athletic’s Gregg Evans, he has missed the trip Stateside due to an injury. Time will tell if Emery’s intention is to keep him around the first-team this season, or if he will be loaned out when fully fit.
Meanwhile, two young players who are in the USA and have impressed on our tour thus far do have question marks over their respective futures, in terms of whether or not they will be sent out on loan this season.
As per Evans, Revan is attracting plenty of interest as he continues to do well as a cover option at left-back, while Philogene has emerged as a stand-out performer in our opening two games and is arguably proving he’s ready to stick around. It’s added that no decision has yet been made on the 21-year-old’s future, but it seems a temporary exit is still an option for now.
Aside from our requirement to have a quota of homegrown players in our squad for Europe this season, with Alex Moreno out injured currently, Revan could be an important option to have available to Emery to provide cover for Lucas Digne in the opening weeks of the campaign.
Given the Frenchman’s own injury history, that could become an issue for us, and so Revan could stay up until late in the window to ensure we’ve got adequate depth, assuming a new signing doesn’t arrive.
As for Philogene, having scored against Fulham last time out and generally impressed with his attacking play and work ethic on the right side of our midfield, he could be another key depth option this season as we look to compete on multiple fronts and play a significant amount of games.
Time will tell what Emery decides, as the Villa boss will undoubtedly make the right decision for us and also consider what’s best for the youngsters in question in terms of their respective career paths moving forward.
