Ezri Konsa has been ruled out of Aston Villa’s game against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Konsa leads a list of Villa absentees after sustaining a hip injury on international duty with England, returning to his club early to undergo scans. The central defender was substituted during England’s 3-0 victory against Greece in the Nations League.
Like Konsa, Amadou Onana picked up an injury while playing for his country and is unavailable for the game against Palace, with a foot issue.
“They have small injuries,” said manager Unai Emery speaking in his pre match press conference. “They have to rest and recover and each day is very important. For tomorrow they are not available, maybe they could come back for the next match (against Juventus on Wednesday night).”
As The Athletic reported earlier this month, Emery confirmed Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey are on the sidelines after suffering hamstring injuries in Villa’s 2-0 defeat away to Liverpool. However, Emery will have Matty Cash and Ross Barkley back available in the squad.
“Overall, when I’m looking at us and other teams, they have injured players,’” added Emery. “Even tomorrow, Crystal Palace (do).
“We are playing with some players after being injured, some players are out like Konsa, Amadou Onana, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey.
“We are adding players (back) like (Matty) Cash and (Ross) Barkley, who are included in the squad tomorrow. We are going to try to feel confident in the players we have in the squad.”
Villa return from the international break after four straight defeats, the worst run of form in Emery’s two-year tenure. Despite the game against Palace representing a key opportunity for Villa to buck their downturn in form, Emery stressed the need for his players to “keep calm.”
“(We need to) try to keep calm, try to rest,’ he said. “We are more or less with the points we were expecting. Even losing we are (going) the right way. But it is very important how we respond tomorrow at Villa Park.
“38 matches playing against the top seven teams, home and away and other teams, home and away. We played the last two matches away to Tottenham (Hotspur) and Liverpool. The results were not a surprise for us. Maybe we wanted to fight and played more or less like we planned, but made some mistakes.”
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