Unai Emery has provided a big injury update ahead of Aston Villa vs Wolves, with Ollie Watkins’ fitness being central to the discussion.
Villa are set to play another big game on Saturday. On the back of their 3-0 victory over Young Boys in the Champions League, they will now host Wolves at Villa Park.
While John McGinn has expressed his anger at the fixture schedule, the odds look to be in the Birmingham outfit’s favour. The Old Gold are in terrible form going into the match and are yet to win a Premier League game this season.
Now, in the build-up to the fixture, Emery has offered clarity on Watkins’ fitness as well as an update on Boubacar Kamara’s and Tyrone Ming’s recovery.
Ollie Watkins – injury update
Despite a slow start to the campaign, Watkins has finally hit form.
The England international was instrumental in Villa’s last Premier League game as they came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 thanks to the striker’s brace.
However, there were fears after the 3-0 victory over Young Boys in the week after Watkins was spotted icing his ankle.
Now, ahead of the match, Emery was able to confirm the striker’s fitness for the derby.
He said: “He’s available 100 per cent to play. He had some problems, like other players, but not relevant. He’s now available tomorrow 100 per cent to play.”
Tyrone Mings – injury update
The former Villa captain has now been out of action for over a year after his injury on the opening day of the 2023/24 campaign.
Since then, it has been a slow road to recovery for Mings as he looks to get back to action as soon as possible.
Emery did provide an update earlier this campaign, confirming that Mings was back training alone.
Now, nearly a month since the last update, the Villa manager has announced that the centre-back is now training consistently with the first team.
Boubacar Kamara – injury update
Similarly to Mings, Kamara has been out of action for a while. Kamara was forced off in the defeat to Man United in February, and it was later announced that he had done his ACL.
However, the midfielder has had a quicker road to recovery than Mings and could be back in action soon.
Emery said before the Wolves game that Kamara is also back training with the first team every day, a process which started this week.
