Aston Villa forward Jhon Duran has travelled with the rest of the squad for our Europa Conference League encounter with AZ Alkmaar on Thursday evening.
The 19-year-old was absent from the squad that faced West Ham Utd on Sunday, and with Unai Emery not mentioning any fresh injury concerns ahead of the game, there was uncertainty over why he missed out.
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Reports in Colombia have since suggested that there might have been a ‘dispute’ involving the forward given his lack of playing time, although it was seemingly largely based on his social media activity having wiped all things Villa related from his Instagram account.
That’s not exactly sure-fire reasoning for the decision to leave him out, but there was concern that something may have happened over the past week or so, or that he has picked up another injury problem.
It’s hoped that the Villa boss will clarify the situation in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, but it appears as though we already have our answer in terms of whether or not Duran is available.
As seen in the images below, not only was he involved in our final training session at Bodymoor Heath ahead of the trip to Alkmaar, but he was also seen in the club’s video of the players boarding the plane on their way to the Netherlands.
Time will tell if Duran starts the game or comes off the bench, while we’ll wait to see what reason Emery gives for his absence on Sunday having been a regular presence on the sidelines this season to provide depth behind Ollie Watkins.
Duran has four goals in 11 appearances so far this campaign, and with most of those outings coming in Europe, he’ll certainly hope he’s given the opportunity to build on that this week, and we may well need the dynamic and attacking threat that he can provide for what promises to be a difficult assignment.
✅ Also with the squad travelling to Alkmaar 👊🏽🟣🔵#avfc #UTV https://t.co/TUtjl8b76q pic.twitter.com/4ctuDLXeVT
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) October 25, 2023