OPINION
Aston Villa captain James Chester’s recent absence from match day squads has been a bit of a mystery, but manager Dean Smith has now shared a worrying update on the Villa captain.
“Chester had an injection in his knee on Wednesday to settle it. That’s a more long term one for us at the moment,” he said at his pre match press conference, as per the Birmingham Mail.
Those two words ‘long term’ are a nightmare for the player and Villa fans. There was no suggestion that this was a major problem for Chester but yet that’s what it’s seemingly turned in to.
The fact that Axel Tuanzebe is also out means that Villa are very short on centre backs at this moment in time. They only have Tommy Elphick and Tyrone Mings as orthodox centre halves, there’s nobody really backing them up.
If either of those two goes down as well then Villa are in serious trouble. However, it’s the status of the skipper that will really have Villans fans hiding behind the sofa.
Chester is a hugely important player for Villa both on and off the pitch, and his quality and leadership cannot really be replicated by Elphick or Mings – although the latter give it a good go with his barking at team mates against Brentford on Wednesday.
The fact that Chester is now being regarded by management as a long term casualty is a real concern. He’s somebody the club need to have down the stretch, but it doesn’t look as if that’s going to happen now.
Hopefully he can make a faster-than-expected recovery and chip in for the final few months of the season, but the signs aren’t good at the moment, that’s for sure.