Aston Villa forward Jhon Duran was once again absent from the squad for our 3-1 win over Luton Town, and Unai Emery has revealed the reason why.
The 19-year-old has featured on 12 occasions so far this season, scoring four goals in those outings, but his availability has become an issue in recent weeks.
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After much speculation, Emery insisted that he missed our win over West Ham Utd last weekend due to injury, and he was able to feature late on against AZ Alkmaar in midweek as he came off the bench in the latter stages to suggest he had recovered.
The expectation was that he would be involved on Sunday against Luton as he continues to offer an important depth option behind Ollie Watkins in attack, but his absence from the bench was again a talking point prior to kick-off.
Fortunately, albeit disappointingly, Emery revealed that it was another injury issue rather than any disciplinary concern, as Duran’s lack of involvement this past week will have raised some eyebrows amid ongoing talk that there has perhaps been something off the pitch that has happened.
Aș per The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell though, Emery confirmed after the game that Duran was ruled out due to an infection in his toe, and with a week until our next game away at Nottingham Forest, it’s hoped that the Colombian international can recover in time to return to the fold.
It is a concern though that he is seemingly picking up problems consistently now, as it leaves us light in attack given the lack of alternatives options up top to lead the line and give us a different dynamic with his physicality and aerial threat.
Particularly with a busy fixture schedule coming up and heading into the festive period, Emery will need all of his squad available to help us compete across multiple fronts, and so it’s hoped that this latest setback for Duran isn’t serious, and he’ll be back in the squad next time out.