Aston Villa face Leeds United in the Premier League on Saturday, and Unai Emery has confirmed that Matty Cash will be available for selection.
Villa will be looking to bounce back from the disappointment of our FA Cup defeat to Newcastle United last time out, as we hope to continue to maintain our advantage over the chasing pack for a Champions League qualification spot.
It won’t be easy as Leeds will be eager to continue to move away from the relegation zone and so they will pose a difficult challenge, but there was good news on the injury front from a Villa perspective this week.
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Emery confirmed that Cash will return after his injury layoff, and that is an important boost given how influential the Polish international has been for us in both the defensive and attacking phase so far this season on a consistent basis.
We undoubtedly missed his presence against Newcastle with Lamare Bogarde filling in, and so that will hopefully be a crucial factor in our favour against Leeds this weekend.
However, that is unfortunately where the good news ends as John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Youri Tielemans remain sidelined, while neither Alysson nor Harvey Elliott will feature either.
Further, Marco Bizot sits out as he serves his suspension after his red card against Newcastle last weekend, and so it’s hoped that Emiliano Martinez is fully fit and able to come through the entire game, otherwise we will be forced to turn to our youngsters to step in.
“Matty Cash is coming back,” Emery told reporters, as per Villa TV. “He trained the last two training sessions and he is feeling good, and he is coming back.
“The players who were injured are still being injured – John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans and Alysson.
“Harvey Elliott, as well, is not available for tomorrow. The other players are available.”
Villa will hope to continue to keep ticking over and racking up wins as we wait for key individuals to return from injury, and the schedule remains good for the time being with a week until we head to Wolves in our next league outing.
Full focus will be on Leeds for now though, as we can’t afford to slip up in our push for Champions League football, while there could be more on the line if results were to go our way moving forward as whispers have once again started about whether or not we’re still in the title race. Fail to win this game and it could be a major blow to both aspirations.