Aston Villa v Wolves injury news as five sidelined and two doubts

Aston Villa and Wolves return to action with a Black Country derby on Wednesday night.

Villa are on the up following the appointment of Unai Emery, climbing to 12th in the Premier League table after three wins in four league outings, including a superb away win over Tottenham last time out. Wolves have appointed a Spaniard of their own in Julen Lopetegui, but having been bottom of the league at the time of the appointment, they were well aware that their proposed turnaround would take significantly longer.

Wolves are now in 19th place after a defeat to Manchester United and a win over Everton, but they are within a point and a heap of goals from safety, giving them plenty of opportunity and time to turn things around.

Ahead of the derby, Villa have been sweating on John McGinn and Douglas Luiz, who both picked up injuries during the win over Tottenham last time out. Luiz is listed as a doubt, but McGinn will be absent. “Yes, but I don’t know exactly,” Emery said when asked if McGinn has suffered a hamstring injury. “Hopefully, it’s not going to be a big injury.”

Emiliano Martinez should return in goal, while Diego Carlos is sidelined, and the recovering Jacob Ramsey is a doubt, with Emery adding: “He is so close. He’s starting to try and be with us this week. I don’t know exactly if he can take some minutes against Wolverhampton or next week in the FA Cup. I don’t know.”

As for Wolves, Lopetegui is blessed with a mostly fit squad, aside from Chiquinho (knee), Pedro Neto (ankle) and Sasa Kalajdzic (knee). Matheus Cunha, who joined on loan from Atletico Madrid, is now available to play. Adama Traore should be in for a start after a bright performance last time out, especially given some of the scoring issues Wolves are having.

Speaking about those issues, Lopetegui has said recently: “You must work, have the belief and to come in tomorrow wanting to work hard and to believe that we are able to improve. We have to improve of course, but the only way that I know how to make more chances is, in the end, to have the confidence in the players that they will score more.”