Boubacar Kamara of Aston Villa
Boubacar Kamara of Aston Villa
Aston Villa could be boosted by the returns of defender Ezri Konsa and midfielder Boubacar Kamara, as they prepare for the visit of Juventus in the Champions League this week. Villa host Juve on Wednesday evening, hoping to set aside their recent struggling domestic form and maintain their 100% home record in the Champions League.
Unai Emery has had to contend with his fair share of injury issues; Kamara and Jacob Ramsey were both struck down at Liverpool, before the international break, with respective hamstring problems, while Konsa returned prematurely from England duty after collecting an injury relating to his hip.
There appears to be more promising news on the horizon, though, with both Kamara and Konsa spotted training with the rest of the first-team ahead of the Lions' welcoming of Juventus, who themselves are enduring something of an injury crisis - it's estimated that they had only 14 outfield players training before they travel to Birmingham later on Tuesday.
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Villa have recovered Ross Barkley and Matty Cash more recently, as well as John McGinn who was on the sidelines for a number of weeks, but the picture isn't as clear on the availability and fitness of summer signing Amadou Onana. The Belgian was sent back early to Villa while on international duty with Belgium in the break.
Villa's fitness levels are otherwise looking a little healthier than they previously have; since the win over Fulham, Villa's last victory, when Emery was forced to leave out a number of senior players from his squad because of the depth in options, the Lions have almost inevitably lost players to various knocks and setbacks, but they're in the process of recovering a cluster of them ahead of a particularly busy period.
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