With Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith holding his pre-game press conference on Thursday afternoon as we continue preparations for the Championship clash with Leeds United, there was a pleasing injury update given.
The boss provides an injury update ahead of Sunday's clash with Leeds United 🤕
Watch his press conference LIVE from around 2pm 👉 https://t.co/hiiUZwjPMa#AVFC pic.twitter.com/mffZSWKLSA
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 25, 2019
With Tammy Abraham and Axel Tuanzebe missing out on history in our last game as we took a tenth successive win over Millwall, it wasn’t expected that Abraham would be back for this one and he has been ruled out as we give his shoulder longer to settle after the knock, but with Kortney Hause also sidelined (until Norwich), we can welcome back Axel Tuanzebe to ease a defensive headache.
With it known that James Chester had returned to light training, hopefully the announcement there means it’s full training as he continues to step up his own fitness and he’ll be an option for us once again soon enough.
Lovre Kalinic is expected back in training on Monday, so in terms of the Play-Off battles ahead, it seems players are returning to fitness at the right time to provide greater options.
“Tammy won’t play on Sunday. But Axel is available. He’s trained the last two days. He’s fine. James Chester is back training now. Kortney Hause won’t be ready for Sunday but will probably be ready for the Norwich game. Lovre Kalinic should start training on Monday. He should be available for Norwich and the Play-Offs so, again, yet more strength and depth for us.”
