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Former Aston Villa defender Axel Tuanzebe has suffered a 'significant' injury which is set to keep him sidelined for a sizeable portion of the remainder of this Premier League season, his Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has confirmed.
Tuanzebe enjoyed three loan spells at Villa, totalling 46 appearances under Steve Bruce, Dean Smith and then Steven Gerrard in the Premier League, where he helped the club reach when playing the entire play-off final at Wembley in 2019. The Manchester United trainee was eventually released from Old Trafford and joined Ipswich in the summer of 2023.
The versatile defender, who indeed encountered various injury problems across his various spells at Villa, helped the Tractor Boys secure promotion to the top flight last year and had continued his run in the side this year, but he is now due to be missing for the foreseeable future having suffered a serious hamstring injury which could require corrective surgery - although McKenna is optimistic that won't be necessary.
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"We've lost Axel, hamstring, long-term," McKenna said at his pre-match press conference on Monday. "He's seeing specialists over the next 24 hours, hopefully it won't need surgery, but it's a significant injury. He's a very important player for us that we're going to miss a large chunk of the season. It's disappointing for him and for us as well."
Ipswich are due to visit Villa in the middle of February, a date that Tuanzebe is now unlikely to miss because of the setback which is expected to keep him out for longer than the next two months. Town are currently 19th with nine points, level with Wolves and Crystal Palace.
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