Aston Villa have confirmed both Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia will be available for selection against Everton this weekend.
The pair were both named on the Villa bench for our defeat at Bournemouth on the opening weekend of the season, with the duo suffering their respective knocks in the back end of pre-season.
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However, Villa boss Steven Gerrard has confirmed that neither will be sidelined by those setbacks, as they have both trained this week and will be available for selection on Saturday, as per the club’s official site.
While that’s a huge boost for us, Gerrard added that he has an almost fully fit squad at his disposal, and had good news on long-term absentee Kortney Hause too as he has stepped up his recovery from injury.
“Tyrone had a scan and it showed a little bit of damage in one of his adductor muscles,” said Gerrard. “Thankfully the damage wasn’t too severe, we gave him a couple of down days on the back of that scan result and he’s trained for the last two days. So he’s available for selection.
“Emi Buendía had a niggle the back end of last week but he’s had a full week going into this.
“The rest (of the squad) we’re fully fit, there’s only Kortney Hause who isn’t available at the moment. He’s back on the grass with the physio but he’s not available for selection.”
Time will tell what Villa starting XI he opts for on Saturday, as the performance against Bournemouth simply wasn’t good enough and so he either keeps faith in those same players and gives them a chance to get us on track, or change it up completely.
Buendia in particular is deserving of a bigger opportunity having always impressed when involved, but it’s less clear who Mings would displace to take his spot back in the side with Diego Carlos and Ezri Konsa looking to build a partnership and provide a stronger resistance at the back.