Aston Villa v AFC Bournemouth early injury news as 9 out and 3 doubts

Aston Villa face AFC Bournemouth at Villa Park in the Premier League as they continue their hunt for a Champions League spot.

The Villains put a dent in to Arsenal's title hopes whilst increasing their chances of playing in European football's top table next season. Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins were on target at the Emirates to strengthen their grip on fourth spot after Spurs suffered a 4-0 thrashing to Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Cherries held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw last week but could have held on for more had they not conceded twice to Bruno Fernandes after going in front through Dominic Solanke and later Justin Kluivert. Bournemouth are 13th and only two points off of mid-table.

Villa have a Europa Conference League game against Lille to think about on Thursday. They hold a 2-1 lead from the first leg but will have to manage that tie as well as thinking about Sunday. Here’s the latest injury and team news ahead of kick-off at the weekend.

Aston Villa team news

Prior to the game against Lille, there are six players unavailable to Villa for their next match. Boubacar Kamara, Emi Buendia and Tyrone Mings are all out with knee injuries.

Buendia and Mings have been missing since August but are making positive strides in their recovery by doing some ball work at Bodymoor Heath. The pair aren’t expected to make an appearance for the first team however this season.

Boubacar Kamara suffered a knee injury in February and was forced to undergo surgery. The midfielder will miss EURO 2024 and is being tipped to return in October. Jacob Ramsey is another absentee with his season all but over after a toe injury was revealed. Ramsey’s had a stop-start campaign after a foot injury forced him to miss some weeks of the season.

The last absentee is Douglas Luiz who will miss the clash against Bournemouth and the game against Chelsea because of suspension. He picked up his 10th yellow card of the season last week and that means an automatic two-match ban.

In his pre-match press conference ahead of the match with Lille, Unai Emery revealed that Alex Moreno would be unavailable over the next fortnight. He said: “ "Álex Moreno has a small injury in his calf and he’s going to be out. He’s not available for tomorrow and maybe it will be two or three weeks.”

Bournemouth team news

Ryan Fredericks has been ruled out until June. He has suffered a few setbacks when trying to recover from a calf injury and has not played since March. The 31-year-old is out of contract in the summer. 

Marcus Tavernier is expected to miss the remainder of the campaign. A thigh injury will put him out until at least their final game of the season and even then a return has been described as ‘difficult’. 

Chris Mepham hasn’t played this month for Bournemouth. Andoni Iraola said he has a ‘health issue’ and has been given a 25% chance of playing. Antoine Semenyo was missing at the weekend due to a cold and was not at 100%. It was decided that the best course of action was to allow him to rest and there is a wait as to whether he'll be available or not.

Tyler Adams is another player that was missing against Man United last week. He has a lower back injury but it isn’t deemed to have been serious. Adams should return this weekend.

Luis Sinisterra suffered a hamstring injury 39 minutes in to his return last week. The Colombian international is expected to be out for at least another two weeks and there was a feeling of regret of rushing him back so soon.

"I regret starting him, yes," Iraola told the Bournemouth Echo. "But he was training really well this week. It was a well thought decision.

“Probably not an ideal situation, but we lost Tav and Antoine the other day. If I hadn’t seen him do very well this week, I wouldn’t have taken this decision.

“But he was very confident, he was training at a very good level and that is why we took the decision. Sometimes you have to risk. Sometimes it works well.

“I have to thank him, because he was the first one who wanted to play from the beginning. But it is obvious that probably he reinjured.”