Amadou Onana
Aston Villa’s Amadou Onana remains hopeful Youri Tielemans makes a quick return from injury.
The 28-year-old midfielder has suffered two different injuries during the course of this season.
After September’s international break, he started in Aston Villa’s goalless draw against Everton in the Premier League. Unai Emery replaced Tielemans after the break due to a calf injury.
He spent 55 days on the sidelines, a few more weeks than initially expected. The former Leicester City man regained full fitness right before November’s international break.
Tielemans featured regularly for the Birmingham club for over two months before another setback. On January 25th, he had to leave the pitch in the 74th minute in Aston Villa’s 2-0 league win over Newcastle United at St James’ Park.
The Belgium international has been on the sidelines since then with an ankle injury and won’t make it to Rudi Garcia’s squad for the March international break.
Youri Tielemans injury news
Meanwhile, Emery’s side host Lille in the second leg of the Europa League last 16 later today. The first leg in France ended in a goalless draw.
The clash will see Onana face his former club, and ahead of this match, RTBF in Belgium spoke to the 24-year-old midfielder. He caught up with his compatriots and Lille duo Thomas Meunier and Nathan Ngoy.
Amadou Onana discussed the upcoming international break with 34-year-old Meunier:
“He’s a legend in our country, but also like a big brother to me. It’s always a pleasure to see him again. We talked a bit about the upcoming international break. We’re all eager for it to happen,” he said.
Garcia called up the 22-year-old centre-back in November, but he withdrew due to an injury.
On the possibility of Ngoy making his senior debut, Onana explained: “He’s a young player with quite a bit of experience already. I’ve trained with him for the national team before. He’s fast, strong, good at distributing the ball… He has a lot of qualities. He’s a contender for a place in the team.”
When asked for an update on Youri Tielemans’ injury, he added: “I’m not a doctor, but his rehabilitation is going very well. We miss him on the pitch. I hope he recovers very quickly and that we’ll see him again very soon.”
Tielemans and Onana’s Aston Villa stats
Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans
On Wednesday, Sport Witness relayed news that Tielemans wants to travel to the United States with Belgium this month despite his injury. They face USA and Mexico in friendlies in the upcoming international break.
Emery has regularly utilised the Belgian duo at Villa Park when available for selection. However, his injuries have affected his contribution to the team this season.
|Premier League 2025/26||
|---|
|Appearances|17|
|Started|15|
|Minutes per game|76|
|Total minutes played|1289|
|Goals|0|
🇪🇸 Andrés García and Kosta Nedeljković | La Liga club looking to sign 2 Aston Villa players
➡️Beware of the financialshttps://t.co/BnGNRHPdpy
— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) March 18, 2026