Aston Villa have ripped up goalkeeper Matija Sarkic’s loan deal at Wigan Athletic due to his lack of appearances, it has been confirmed.
Manager Steve Bruce explained at his media briefing on Friday that the Championship giants have recalled Sarkic, 20, from the League One leaders, who he initially joined on a season-long loan.
Birmingham Mail journalist Alex Dicken, who attended the press conference, reported Bruce’s confirmation on his personal Twitter account early on Friday afternoon, explaining that the Villa manager was not happy with the goalkeeper’s game time.
Bruce confirmed this morning #AVFC have recalled Matija Sarkic from his loan spell at Wigan.
He's not particularly happy Sarkic only played three times in four months.— Alex Dicken (@alexedicken) January 12, 2018
Sarkic has only made three first-team appearances for the third-tier outfit, in FA Cup wins against Crawley and Fylde and an EFL Cup win against Middlesbrough’s Under-23s.
The young shot-stopper has never made a single senior appearance for the Midlands giants since he arrived in the West Midlands from Anderlecht in 2015, although he was named on the substitute’s bench due to an injury to Mark Bunn last season.
OPINION
Villa have acted quickly to prevent Sarkic from spending the rest of the season gathering splinters up his backside from sitting on the Wigan bench. They are not the only big club to have grown antagonised by the League One leaders’ use of on-loan players, with Newcastle also cutting short striker Ivan Toney’s season-long loan before hastily agreeing to send him to Scunthorpe for the second half of the campaign. Villa should do the same with Montengrin ace Sarkic and find a club for the rest of the season where he can expect to play regularly.