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Photos: Leon Bailey arrives at Bodymoor Heath for first day at Aston Villa

Sumeet Paul

The wait is finally over as Leon Bailey reported for duty at Bodymoor Heath on Thursday for his first day at Aston Villa following his summer move.

The 24-year-old was signed from Bayer Leverkusen earlier this month, but has had to self-isolate on arrival in the UK and in turn has missed the pre-season schedule.

READ MORE: Smith on Buendia and Villa signings, Watkins role and formation flexibility

Nevertheless, he will no doubt have been working as hard as possible to stay fit, as while he would naturally be expected to be in decent shape after the last Bundesliga campaign, he also featured for Jamaica in the Gold Cup not so long ago.

That said, he’ll now be a couple of weeks behind his teammates in terms of being in top condition especially given it’s his first year in the Premier League, but he’ll hope to be involved as soon as possible to start to showcase his talent and prove his worth to Dean Smith.

As seen in the tweets below, it was all smiles for Bailey at Villa’s training ground as he was welcomed by the Villa boss and his new teammates before being put through his paces out on the pitch.

Bailey will no doubt have relished the opportunity to get started with the club, and while the expectation is that he’s joined up with the group too late to feature against Watford on Saturday, it’s hoped that he’ll put himself in contention to be involved against Newcastle Utd next week in our first home game of the new Premier League season.

With Emiliano Buendia missing the last two pre-season games coupled with Ollie Watkins hobbling off last time out, Smith is unlikely to have a full squad at his disposal for our opener against Watford, but he’ll be hopeful that they’ll be available as soon as possible to ensure we make a positive start to the campaign.

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