OPINION
Many Aston Villa fans will be worrying about their side’s chances against Stoke City at the weekend as midfielder Glenn Whelan is reportedly set to start.
The Villans are set to travel to face the Potters at the Britannia on Saturday and know they need to win as they can’t afford not to if they want to keep their play-off hopes alive.
Dean Smith’s side are currently 10th, nine points off sixth-placed Bristol City, and have to see the clash with Stoke City as a must-win, especially when you consider that Nathan Jones’ side have been struggling this season.
The only issue is that the Villans haven’t been in great form themselves as of late and have very few capable midfielders to call upon in the middle of the park.
According to the Birmingham Mail, John McGinn is suspended for Saturday’s clash and Tom Carroll as well as Henri Lansbury are unavailable due to injury.
The newspaper claim that as a result Whelan and Conor Hourihane are expected to start the match with Stoke.
While Hourihane hasn’t been in tremendous form lately, many Aston Villa fans will surely be focusing on the fact that Whelan is going to start as that will be a major worry for them.
The 35-year-old midfielder has featured 35 times this season and at times has looked like age has caught up with him – he just doesn’t look like having the energy needed to run the midfield for his side anymore.
Whelan has featured in all of his side’s last five league games and during the 2-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion, he looked like he had run out of steam.
By the end of the game the experienced midfielder looked notably tired after his recent run in the team and seemed in need of a rest.
While a week has almost passed since the loss to the Baggies, it’s very unlikely that it has been enough time to see Whelan being 100% rested and raring to go once again.
Given that the Baggies just bypassed Whelan more and more as the game went on last weekend, surely Villan supporters will be worried that Stoke City will expose the midfielder’s tired legs on Saturday to get a positive result.