Morgan Rogers injury: What Unai Emery said after Aston Villa attacker hobbled off vs Chelsea

Unai Emery has confirmed Morgan Rogers was substituted during the second half of the 2-1 win over Chelsea with an injury but hopes the attacker will be fit enough to face Crystal Palace on Tuesday.

Rogers was replaced by Donyell Malen in the 78th minute as he asked to be taken off following a kick from a Chelsea player, Emery has revealed. The attacking midfielder was just growing into the game as Villa were pushing for a winner but his race was run as he limped off with a grimace.

It was probably only a matter of time before Rogers suffered some sort of injury as he has started all 10 of Villa’s games in the last 43 days, only being substituted on three occasions – all after the 70th minute. The schedule has been absolutely brutal for Villa and Rogers has unfortunately come a cropper in the midst of it, although admittedly not as a direct result of the fatigue itself.

“Of course, Morgan he’s playing a lot of minutes because as well physically he can get performing it, but today he had a kick and he was asking me to replace him,” Emery said during Saturday’s post-match press conference.

“Hopefully it’s not for a long time, hopefully he can play on Tuesday in Palace but we changed him for another player and performed well,” Emery added.

Players can often recover from impact injuries in merely a couple of days so there’s no wonder Emery is hopeful Rogers won’t miss any action. Villa will conduct all the necessary precautions before the trip to Palace, though, and are unlikely to take any undue risks.

Tyrone Mings also went off during the win over Chelsea but Emery didn’t comment on the centre-back’s condition. Mings carried on initially after going down with a knee issue but eventually had to be replaced by Lamare Bogarde.

Villa reaping rewards of busy transfer window

The good news is Villa now have such excellent depth in attack following the winter acquisitions of Donyell Malen, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio. The likes of Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey John McGinn already provided Emery with the odd dilemma but the head coach is now spoilt for choice.

Malen has shown signs of promise with his movement in behind and near misses but Asensio and Rashford really stepped up for Villa against Chelsea. Asensio scored twice - his first goals in claret and blue - while Rashford assisted both strikes to earn a huge three points in the Champions League fight.

Had Villa lost the game, Chelsea would’ve extended their advantage to seven points and qualification for Europe’s elite competition would have felt like it was drifting away. It’s quite the opposite feeling following Saturday’s inspired comeback, however, with Villa now just one point behind both Chelsea and one outside the top five.

The Villans still have to travel away to Manchester City but have already faced Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest twice. The end of the season is looking promising if Emery’s men can build some momentum.