Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of facing Fulham in the Premier League this weekend.
Villa travel to Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon hoping to continue our positive start to the campaign, while we’ll look to build momentum once again ahead of facing Bologna in the Champions League next week.
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Our fixture schedule is becoming increasingly busy to end the month as we look to compete across multiple competitions, and so it’s imperative that we start moving towards having a full squad available to give ourselves the ability to rotate and keep everyone fresh and clear of injuries.
Fortunately, there was excellent news going into the weekend, as Emery provided a positive update on Boubacar Kamara, Tyrone Mings, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa in particular, as it sounds as though the influential quartet are pushing to be involved against Fulham after recovering from various injury setbacks.
“Progressively, they are getting better, of course,” Emery told the media at his pre-match press conference. “Kamara and Mings, for this match, they are available, and they are going to try with us for Fulham.
“Only still being out, he is training, but not 100% with us, is Robin Olsen. He is not in the squad, but the other players, they are available, and it’s good news.
“McGinn has trained this week normally with us, and he’s feeling good. Konsa as well, he’s feeling good. Jaden, he’s feeling good. I think it’s the first time this year, we are, more or less, with every player available to play.”
While Mings has been absent since the start of last season, Villa have been without the services of Kamara since February, and both have been sorely missed despite our progress and positive results without them.
Both McGinn and Konsa picked up issues prior to the international break but hopefully they are ready to return in our upcoming games, while it’s crucial to have Jaden Philogene back too as we look to rotate and have different tactical solutions for some big challenges ahead. Further, Amadou Onana was also seen in training on Friday, and so having had an injury problem of his own, it was good to see him involved as well.
Naturally, the hope now is that we can steer clear of any fresh issues as it’s vital we keep our squad healthy, and we’ll certainly benefit from having a stronger bench now as we look to continue to lay the foundation for what will hopefully be a very successful season.
With the experience, leadership, quality and suitability to Emery’s style and system, it’s so important to have such an important quartet back available in Mings, Kamara, McGinn and Konsa, and hopefully they’ll all be given the green light to make the matchday squad on Saturday.
