Aston Villa face Middlesbrough in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday, and Unai Emery has provided our latest injury news ahead of the encounter.
Villa will be looking to end a disappointing run of early exits from this competition over the past seven years, with Emery also hoping for a better performance and result after our frustrating loss to Stevenage at this stage last season.
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Coupled with the fact that the fixture schedule is much less hectic this month as we only play three times, the hope was that he’d have a fully fit squad, or as close to one as possible, for this clash on Teesside, but unfortunately there was disappointing news on the injury front.
“The (long-term) players injured – Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendía,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “Pau is also not available, nor Lucas Digne, Bertrand Traoré or Youri Tielemans. Robin Olsen is still injured but is starting to work on the pitch.
“The other players are ready.”
Although Villa do have depth and quality across the squad to manage with those absentees, it’s disappointing in particular to not have Torres or Tielemans back yet, as the pair have proven to be influential for us and need to reintegrate back into the side and play consistent minutes to find their peak condition and form.
Nevertheless, we’ll have to make do without them for this game, but there is some good news as Boubacar Kamara returns from his suspension and will hopefully come back into the starting line-up.
On Torres though, as per the Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell, Emery added further insight on the Spanish centre-half, noting that he was only introduced against Burnley last week as Clement Lenglet was feeling unwell.
His ankle issue worsened off the back of that as he was never 100% fit, and so he has subsequently been left out this weekend to rest completely and will hopefully be available for selection when we face Everton in the Premier League next weekend.
After such a testing December in terms of the volume of games and lack of rest, it’s hoped Villa can come through January in good shape both in terms of injuries and results, and it starts with the assignment of trying to advance in the FA Cup in what is likely going to be a tricky tie at Middlesbrough on Saturday evening.