“Very Rare” - Big Injury Boost For Smith As Villa Can Expect A Debut Tonight

After a free weekend in the fixture calendar, Aston Villa fans are eagerly awaiting the EFL Cup semi-final second leg tie against Leicester City later this evening as we welcome them back to Villa Park with the scores tied at one apiece.

Head coach Dean Smith should certainly be taking the tie seriously even if our bread and butter this year is simply survival in the Premier League and we can expect both sides to go strong in a few hours time, but for us, in terms of team news, there are a couple of boosts.

Not only can we finally welcome Keinan Davis back to contention after another spell on the sidelines for him, we can also expect a debut of some kind for January signing Mbwana Samatta, as both have been in training this week.

Speak to the Official Site about his options for this evening, our gaffer explained.

“We’ve got a pretty much fully fit squad – and it’s very rare I can say that. We’ve got the long-term injuries that are out for the season, but I’ve got Keinan Davis back and available for selection, Ally Samatta’s trained all week so he’s available. It’s nice to be able to be picking from a strong squad.”

As for our new signing more specifically, he added about the 27-year-old Tanzania international.

“He trained with us on Thursday, and trained well as well. He needs to get up to speed and he knows that, he found the intensity a little bit different to what he had at Genk. A lot of the players have found that intensity a little bit different, which the Premier League is. So our training sessions are very intense and he’ll get used to that quickly. He’s settled in really well, he’s a great personality around the place and it’ll be nice to get him involved in some way, he’s certainly available to be involved against Leicester next Tuesday. We’re looking forward to working with him.”

Hopefully, he’ll get up to speed sooner rather than later but at least we have some kind of attacking options now!