Bad News
After Aston Villa’s 2-1 home win against Sunderland, Villa boss gave reporters an update on Jonathan Kodjia’s situation after tests in France over the weekend and seeing a specialist in London on Monday.
It’s bad news for the player, who looks like he’ll be out for months, with an educated comeback date looking like spring of next year, when you consider the player has already been out for five months this year due to an injury on the same ankle.
“It’s not looking good, in fact it’s flaming awful if I’m being honest,” admitted Bruce, after the Black Cat clash.
“He needs another operation and that’s devastating news.
“It’s going to be months and that is a big blow to us.”
Bruce admitted that with a lengthy lay-off envisaged for the Ivory Coast striker (and with Hogan being far from reliable fitness-wise), Villa will have to get some kind of cover in during the January window.
“Let’s hope we can find something in January to help us because that’s going to be vitally important,” confirmed the Villa boss.
Darn Elephants
As pointed out earlier last week on MOMS, Villa will no doubt be seeking FIFA compensation, after the Ivory Coast had declared Kodjia ‘fit’ and then saw him breakdown in their first training session during the international break.
“We thought he was fine when he went onto international duty,” said Bruce, despite the player not being fit enough to play for Villa before going away for international duty.
“They (Ivory Coast) stepped him up and he was going to play for his country.
“They put the work into him on the Wednesday but unfortunately he broke down.”
Life After Kodjia
Considering Villa are now placed fourth in the league with Kodjia only starting seven league games and scoring once, the team’s improvement in fortune hasn’t been down to him.
Last season, Kodjia scored 19 goals, but at times his selfishness perhaps limited Villa’s overall potential. Despite Kodjia’s goals, Villa still finished in the bottom half of the table, as did his previous club Bristol City, the season before, when he scored a similar amount.
Yes, he’ll be a loss, as he’s a formidable option in this division. For example, tonight’s lacklustre performance against Sunderland may have been improved by his presence.
Also, Villa are now down to just one fit striker, so there’s a potential problem if Keinan Davis gets injured.
For MOMS’ money, John Terry’s injury was a bigger deal in the context of this season.
With that in mind, the next five weeks will certainly be made interesting due to these two key injuries, but they’re not the end of the world. This is what squads are for.
The bottom line for this season remains the same – promotion and no excuses.
UTV
Follow MOMS on Facebook, click below:
