Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided a more detailed update on the expected comebacks of our injured players including Alex Moreno and Jacob Ramsey.
While the bulk of our senior squad is currently in the USA on our pre-season tour, a number of key individuals are absent due to injury or other personal matters.
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Moreno underwent hamstring surgery at the end of last season and recently posted an update on social media showing that he was back running on the antigravity treadmill, while Jacob Ramsey suffered a broken metatarsal while on England U21s duty earlier this month.
Leander Dendoncker recently became a father and so he hasn’t travelled Stateside with his teammates, while Bertrand Traore is still recovering from a setback and Jhon Duran wasn’t included in the 26-man squad.
With our first Premier League game fast approaching on August 12 away at Newcastle Utd, Emery will want as close to a fully-fit squad available as possible, but it was a mixed bag of updates with a few likely to return over the next week or so, while Moreno and Ramsey will need longer.
“Alex Moreno had a surgery and he is going to be ready at the end of August or the beginning of September,” Emery told reporters, as per BirminghamLive. “Jacob Ramsey as well, he is going to be ready more in September than August.
“Dendoncker will hopefully meet next week with us, I don’t know if he will meet in the USA or in Birmingham. Bertrand Traore is going to be ready for the second week of August. Jhon Duran is not coming here but he will start training with the group when we are back in Birmingham.”
The Villa boss had earlier confirmed that Leon Bailey is set to join up with the squad on Thursday after his extended break following international duties, while Moussa Diaby could be involved against Fulham on Wednesday.
Philippe Coutinho is also likely to be available for that encounter, but Morgan Sanson isn’t expected to play any part now with Emery revealing that the Frenchman s close to leaving the club again.
It’s a packed start to the new campaign as aside from our league commitments, we also have our Europa Conference League playoff round at the end of August. In turn, it’s hoped that we avoid any further setbacks now to have as much depth and quality available as possible to make a strong start to the season.
Minutes will be important for those coming back in the next week or so, but there is still plenty of time with games against Fulham and Brentford to come in the USA this week, before we take on Lazio and Valencia in our final pre-season outings next month.