Grealish Suffers Injury Recovery Setback
Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish has suffered a setback in his recovery from a shin injury that has kept him out of action for the last seven Premier League games.
Grealish also missed England’s recent FIFA World Cup qualifying games against Albania, San Marino and Poland because of the injury and will once again be unavailable when Aston Villa travel to champions Liverpool on Saturday.
Villa manager Dean Smith has revealed that Grealish has aggravated his injury in training and will continue his spell on the sidelines until the end of the month.
“Myself and Jack were quite optimistic to get him back a bit sooner than he probably should and he’s had a setback that will probably put him back a couple of weeks,” Smith disclosed on Friday.
“He was really good in training, but he couldn’t tolerate the loading. It’s a loading injury and we have to de-load him over the next few weeks and get him back from there.
“We know it’s not a long-term injury and he will be back.
“We all, Jack included, probably pushed him back a little bit too quickly. He wanted to get back, we wanted him to get back and he had a little setback.
Despite the injury, Smith is optimistic that Grealish will not be doubtful for this summer’s European Championships.
“He’s proved himself already but the one thing for certain is he will be back before the end of the season, and then Gareth [Southgate] has to make a decision whether he thinks he’s right for that,” he added.
“He has played 20-odd games this season so everybody has a good idea of what his form is and what he’s about.”
Grealish has scored six goals and provided 10 assists in 22 Premier League outings for Aston Villa this season.
