Aston Villa face Brentford in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa will be looking to bounce back after our defeat at Man City in midweek, a game in which we were without two key players as neither Ollie Watkins nor Emiliano Martinez featured.
READ MORE: Emery faces key potential decision as Villa prepare to face Brentford
With Jacob Ramsey and Matty Cash also still sidelined, coupled with the long-term absences of Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara and Emiliano Buendia, we’ve been blighted by injury problems this season, and yet we’ve still managed to be impressively competitive.
While Nicolo Zaniolo also appeared to pick up a knock on Wednesday night, there is better news with John McGinn returning after serving his three-game suspension, and the hope was that Emery would deliver positive news on the injury front too with Watkins and Martinez at least ready to return.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Emery confirmed that a late decision will be made on the involvement of both Watkins and Martinez, but they will be included in the squad.
However, we’ve suffered another significant blow as he also revealed that Ramsey is now ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with a toe problem, as he hasn’t improved despite receiving treatment since limping off in our win over Luton Town last month.
“Jacob Ramsey has again some problems with his toe. He is not going to be available for the rest of the season,” he told the media on Friday, as per the Athletic.
“Emiliano Martinez and Ollie Watkins could be [feature] tomorrow. We will prepare the match in the last 24 hours and tomorrow, we will know if they will be available. Emi and Ollie are included in the squad for tomorrow.”
It’s been a disrupted season for Ramsey due to injury, with the 22-year-old making just 21 appearances across all competitions, scoring one goal and providing two assists.
His absence has been a real blow given he not only adds an important attacking dynamic to the side, but his work-rate and energy also add balance to the team in both phases, and coupled with Alex Moreno’s fitness issues, not having that duo down the left flank for a consistent run this year has been disappointing.
In turn, it’s another significant blow for the run-in, but we’ve hopefully got enough quality and depth available to Emery to ensure that we can finish strong and achieve our objectives with Ramsey, Kamara, Mings and Buendia all returning for pre-season, provided the latter two aren’t able to make a comeback before this campaign draws to a close as they step up their recovery.
