Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has been discussing Villa defender Ezri Konsa and his potential return to the squad.
This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-themed podcast 1874 where he spoke about a variety of subjects concerning the club.
On the topic of Konsa, who has missed Villa’s previous two Premier League games through illness, Evans had this to say on the Englishman and whether or not he would be available to play in Villa’s next league match against Crystal Palace at the weekend.
He said: “Konsa will be back for the Crystal Palace game. Obviously, everybody knows that at the moment what’s going on in the world, so if a player has got a little bit of an issue, they’re kept well away from everywhere. Konsa hopefully will be back, [Dean] Smith seems to think that he will be.”
Villa signed the Englishman back in the 2019 summer transfer window from Championship side Brentford for a fee of £11.97 million.
Since then, the 23-year-old, who is currently valued at £10.8 million, has made 42 appearances for Villa in which he has managed to score four goals and provide two assists (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Gregg Evans’ comments on Konsa…
While it may have worried some that Konsa had missed both of Villa’s previous two league games through illness, it’s reassuring to hear that the defender should be available to play against Palace at the weekend.
However, with Kortney Hause having filled in for Konsa against Burnley and West Bromwich Albion and managing to keep two clean sheets and earn himself two impressive match ratings for his performances, Smith will now have a tough decision to make in regards to who plays against Palace.
Who do you think should start against Palace?
Ezri Konsa
Kortney Hause
In our view, with Hause currently on a good run of form for Villa, Smith should stick with him in defence instead of putting Konsa back in.