The loan spells of young Aston Villa duo Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Jake Doyle-Hayes at Cambridge United have now come to an end as both players have picked up an injury, ending their seasons.
Cambridge United only have one game left to play, and once they were both ruled out for that game (Macclesfield Town), the loans were brought to an early end and they returned to Bodymoor Heath for treatment and rehabilitation.
20-year-old Hepburn Murphy made ten starts and six substitute appearances in total for former Villa assistant manager Colin Calderwood and he returned two goals.
Fellow 20-year-old Doyle-Hayes took in four starting appearances, with a further two showings from the substitutes bench.
The Birmingham Mail quote Calderwood as saying of the pair.
“Injuries happen to most players, but I think to acclimatise to senior action, it does take a period of time. Rushian took a really nasty knock to his ankle (against Carlisle in March) which in all truth, he’s never fully cleared. He’s trained on, came off the bench and played on. But once you get a knock on it, it sort of flares up again. I think they will both benefit from the experience of playing league football and I’ve got no doubt that they will have successful careers.”
Both, no doubt, would’ve hoped for a better spell away from Villa in the second half of the 2018/19 campaign, but they remain contracted up until the end of next season so I imagine we’ll look to get them out quickly over the summer after they’ve recovered to see how they can kick on further on the back of these experiences.
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