A number of Aston Villa players reported back for pre-season testing on Saturday, with Unai Emery and his staff putting the group through their paces at Bodymoor Heath.
Those that weren’t involved in the last round of internationals and are currently not nursing injuries were back to begin preparations for the new Premier League campaign this weekend, and many of them were clearly pleased to be back.
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Villa’s first league game is against Newcastle Utd on August 12, but with our first pre-season friendly against Walsall fast approaching next weekend, which will be swiftly followed by our trip to the USA as well as meetings with Lazio and Valencia, it promises to be a busy month from this point onwards.
Naturally, on their first day back at the training ground, the players weren’t pushed too hard as they went through various tests in the gym before getting a run in on the pitches outside, with Villa’s image gallery showing a number of players had indeed reported back on the first day.
Matty Cash, Emiliano Buendia, Ezri Konsa, Diego Carlos, Ollie Watkins, Jhon Duran, Lucas Digne, Douglas Luiz and Calum Chambers were all pictured putting work in, and it’s hoped that they’re joined by the rest of their teammates next week to really ramp things up.
We’ve seen Alex Moreno, Bertrand Traore, Philippe Coutinho and Jacob Ramsey all either pick up injuries at the end of last season or since then, and while they’ll likely be seen around Bodymoor Heath for treatment in the coming weeks, it’s hoped that they can return ahead of their respective timelines to avoid missing as much time as possible.
Further, there’s hope that we’ll finally see Pau Torres announced as our second summer signing next week to follow up the arrival of Youri Tielemans, and so it will be interesting to see how well and how quickly our new faces settle.
For now though, it’s great to see some of the players back as it builds the excitement levels for the upcoming campaign, and it’s hoped that we have a productive and injury-free pre-season from here onwards, as we look to have the best possible preparation for what promises to be a gruelling year given our objective to compete on multiple fronts.
Reporting back for duty + pre-season content 🙌🏽#avfc #UTV 🟣🔵 pic.twitter.com/9bocH6rUUC
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) July 8, 2023