Aston Villa will be without half a dozen players for Saturday’s opening game of the season at Newcastle United.
Emi Buendía has suffered a significant knee ligament injury and is ruled out for the long-term, while head coach Unai Emery will also be without a handful of further first-team players.
Jacob Ramsey, Álex Moreno, Leander Dendoncker, Bertrand Traoré, Tim Iroegbunam and Jhon Durán will all miss the Premier League trip to St. James’ Park, with the latter expected to return to training next week.
Reflecting on Buendía’s setback, Emery said: “The worst (injury) in football; for the player, for the club, for us, for his team-mates.
“But always, you are in risk when you are playing of getting injured.
“It was the worst injury for the player. Last year we had it with Diego Carlos, although it was different.
“(It happened) yesterday in the last action of training he got injured.
“He is now visiting the doctors, who will make the decision.
“Of course, now, we want to win for him on Saturday at Newcastle.
“We will have to be patient with him, support him and try to recover as soon as possible.”
Emery was speaking at Thursday’s pre-match media conference to preview Villa’s clash against the Magpies this weekend.
Asked about the impact of Buendía’s injury, the Villa boss said: “Always it is tough, always.
“We are not speaking about being injured for one month, two weeks, two months, including three months.
“This injury, six, seven, eight months.
“It’s a tough moment for him and yesterday we were really in shame after the news we received.
“But today we want to play, we want to face the match on Saturday thinking to win, to be competitive for him.”
Villa have been without the services of Ramsey, Moreno, Dendoncker, Traoré, Durán and Iroegbunam throughout pre-season.
And they will all remain absent for the trip to the north-east, although there is optimistic news when it comes to Colombia international forward Durán.
When asked about his other injury concerns, Emery added: “The same players who were out – Leander Dendoncker, Álex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey, Bertrand Traoré and now Emiliano Buendía, and Tim as well.
“But we are ready, we are ready with the players we are working (with) and very happy with the pre-season.
“And, of course, after the bad news yesterday, we have to adapt quickly again.”
Emery added: “Jhon Durán is still injured but is coming back next week.
“Hopefully we can add him in two or three weeks working consistently with us and having the opportunity to play.”
The Presser
