Scotland make John McGinn decision as hint provided for Aston Villa injury timeframe

Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn has been left out of Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad to face Croatia and Portugal in the Nations League due to injury.

The 29 year old picked up a hamstring injury during Villa’s 3-1 victory over local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers back on September 21 - it will likely be another two to three weeks before McGinn returns to action.

Villa have struggled somewhat in the two games that McGinn has been absent from. They overcame a game Wycombe Wanderers outfit by a score of 2-1 in the League Cup, before being held to a stalemate by Ipswich Town at the weekend.

On McGinn’s injury in a recent press conference, Villa boss Unai Emery said: “[McGinn has] been out for one week and I think he will now be out for two or three weeks more. Our expectation is that he will be out for three or four weeks altogether.

“When someone is injured it is not good for the players and for us. But analysing his performances before he was injured he needed to improve and increase his performance levels. We were working with him on his focus.

“Now he is injured we must stay calm and work to recover as soon as possible - and hopefully we can work on the things he was not doing like he has been doing for the last two years. Trying to fit better into the system and getting better performances from him and the team when he comes back.”

So far this season, McGinn has made six appearances for Villa in all competitions, registering a single assist along the way. Over the course of his career, he has accumulated 71 caps for Scotland, with his first coming all the way back in 2016 - additionally, he has scored a total of 18 goals on the international stage.