News

Aston Villa: Gregg Evans discusses Ross Barkley’s injury

|
Image for Aston Villa: Gregg Evans discusses Ross Barkley’s injury

Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has been discussing Villa midfielder Ross Barkley and the injury he suffered during the club’s recent 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion. 

This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-themed 1874 podcast where he spoke about a number of different topics concerning Dean Smith’s side, including their defeat against the Seagulls.

1 of 10

First up in this quiz on Gabriel Agbonlahor, how old is the former Villa man?

Danny Welbeck opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half. Later on, Villa defender Ezri Konsa managed to equalise for Villa before Solly March put Brighton back in front, ultimately securing the three points for Graham Potter’s team (per BBC Sport).

In the closing minutes of the game, Villa were denied a penalty after the referee consulted with the pitchside monitor, overturning his original decision to award the spot-kick.

On the topic of Barkley, who started the game against Brighton but was subbed off after just five minutes with an injury, Evans had this to say on the matter.

He said: “Ross did the warm-up as well as everybody else did. He was prepared and ready for the game. [It’s] just crazy, really, that the first free-kick of the game, he pulls his hamstring and had to go off.

“There’s no player quite like him on the bench.”

Villa signed Barkley on a season-long loan deal from fellow Premier League side Chelsea back in September.

Barkley was replaced by Bertrand Traore after the Englishman had to leave the pitch in the early minutes of the match. Traore’s performance in Barkley’s absence earned him a match rating of 7.22/10, making him Villa’s highest-rated player on the day as he assisted Konsa’s goal for Smith’s side (per WhoScored).

TIF Thoughts on Gregg Evans’ comments on Barkley…

In our view, given how Barkley has managed to score two goals and provide one assist for Villa in the Premier League so far and earn himself an impressive season rating of 7.37/10 for his performances, this suggests that he could be a big miss for Villa while he’s out recovering from his injury.

Will Ross Barkley be a big miss for Villa?

Yes

Yes

No

No

However, looking at how well Traore did against Brighton when he came on for the injured midfielder, this should take some of the concern away from Smith over Barkley’s injury for the time being.

Share this article

Football writer.