Villa team news vs Middlesbrough: Emery rules quintet out, Pau Torres update

Villa team news vs Middlesbrough: Emery rules quintet out, Pau Torres update

In advance of Saturday’s FA Cup third-round match between Aston Villa and

Middlesbrough, Unai Emery has updated us with the most recent injury updates.

Villa hopes to snap a seven-year sad streak of early eliminations from this

tournament. Emery is also aiming for a better showing and outcome following

Villa’s humiliating loss to Stevenage at this stage of the previous campaign.

The goal was that he’d have a completely healthy team, or as near to one as possible, for this match on Teesside,

given that the fixture schedule is much less demanding this month as we only

play three times. Sadly, there was gloomy news on the injury front.

“Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendía are the (long-term) injured players,” he informed

the reporters, according to VillaTV. “Neither Youri Tielemans nor Lucas

Digne, Bertrand Traoré, or Pau are accessible either. Despite his ongoing

injury, Robin Olsen is beginning to practice.

“Everyone else is prepared,”

It’s unfortunate that Torres and Tielemans are still out of the picture.

They have been vital to us and need to be reintegrated into the team and play

regular minutes in order to return to their best. Villa does have quality and

depth throughout the squad to deal with those absences.

Although we will be without them for this game, there is some positive news:

Boubacar Kamara is back from suspension and should be able to return to the starting lineup.

However, Emery provided more information about Torres, stating that

the Spanish center-half was only brought in against Burnley last week due to

Clement Lenglet’s illness, according to Jacob Tanswell of the Athletic.

He was never totally fit, therefore his ankle problem got worse as a result. As a

result, he was rested this weekend and will hopefully be eligible for selection

when we play Everton in the Premier League the following Saturday.

It is hoped that Villa can start January in good shape in terms of injuries and

of rest. The first task is to try to advance in the FA Cup in what is expected to be a

difficult tie at Middlesbrough on Saturday evening.