Gregg Evans, The Athletic’s Aston Villa reporter, has been speaking on the latest edition of The Ornstein & Chapman Podcast about Aston Villa players in contention for Euro 2020.
One of the topics that Evans spent some time on was Jack Grealish and his situation.
The 25-year-old was expected to be back and ready to play against Fulham on Sunday, but Grealish suffered an injury on Saturday, and it is unclear how long he will be out for, which is not good news for his club or his chances of making Gareth Southgate’s England squad.
Evans said: “He’s injured again. So not very good at all for Aston Villa, not good for England.
“We hope that it’s not a serious injury, but we don’t really know how long he’s going to be out for at the moment, because Dean Smith has simply said that he’s not putting a timescale on the return.
“That in itself is a little bit worrying and a little bit more concerning than maybe what we knew beforehand. I mean, we were told when he first picked up the shin injury at the back end of February that he was going to be out for between four and five weeks.
“Jack Grealish trained all week; he felt ready, thought that he was going to play in this Fulham game, but in the final training session on Saturday, he pulled up after just ten minutes of the session and felt pain in the same area, the same shin injury, and wasn’t risked.
“If Jack Grealish, a player who wants to play football more than anybody else, tells you that he’s got a pain in his leg and he can’t play, then that is a big concern.”
Do you think Grealish will play a part in the rest of the season?
Yes, he will recover
No, he could be in trouble
TIF Thoughts on Grealish…
Villa have just nine games left in their season, so Grealish doesn’t have a lot of time to come back to help his side and earn his place in Southgate’s squad, especially considering it is unclear how long Grealish will be out for.
Dean Smith’s side have really struggled without their club captain as they have only won two of the league games that he has missed, so the quicker he returns, the better for Villa.
However, this seems like a concerning injury, and we have to hope that Grealish recovers in time to play some part in the remainder of the season.
In other news: ‘Causing problems’ – MOTD pundit lauds ‘clever’ £9m-rated Aston Villa ace