Aston Villa given huge fitness boost as three key players return for Leeds United fixture

Aston Villa have been given a huge boost ahead of Thursday evening’s Premier League clash with Leeds United as Steven Gerrard confirms both Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa will return to the team.

The defensive duo missed the emphatic 4-0 win over Southampton last time out after supposedly registering positive covid tests prior to the game and were replaced by Ashley Young and Calum Chambers in the eleven.

And despite the good news of having both Digne and Konsa available for the trip to Elland Road, Gerrard admits that the performance of Young and Chambers in their absence has given him a huge selection headache.

“I’m very happy to have all the players available first and foremost and in my position you always want tough decisions because it means that people are playing well,” explained the manager.

“I need to make that decision between now and kick-off whether I go with the same team or whether I make some changes within that but that’s the position I want to be in, credit to the players.

“Against Brighton, Lucas and Ezri were fantastic and really contributed to the clean sheet away from home and obviously last minute they weren’t available and Ash and Chambers have come in and done a real stern job and contributed to the team keeping a second clean sheet.

“I’ve got to give that some thinking time over the next 24 hours and decide what’s best to go with.”

Gerrard also confirmed that Carney Chukwuemeka is back and in contention for the game on Thursday evening meaning that Villa are now without just one senior player through injury, Marvelous Nakamba.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going.