Some may have thought that the international break had come at a good time for the club, allowing the growing injury list to shrink. However, since the Swansea game, three more players have been added to the ever growing list of injuries. Tom Cleverley, Jores Okore, and Christian Benteke are now injured, with the latter doubtful for the Belgians’ Euro 2016 qualifiers against Cyprus and Israel.
At the moment, the club is top of the injury league, with nine players out. According to www.physioroom.com, five of the players will be available after the international break, although the players will not be match fit due to the number of games they have missed recently.
Sherwood really did not need to have any more first team players waiting in the physio room but it has been revealed that Jores Okore has been unable to join up with the Denmark squad because of a knee injury. According to the Danish media, the young defender is suffering from a swollen knee and this news is worrying to Villa fans. Okore has had a decent return to the team, after his long injury lay off. He is, however, prone to errors that could cost the team, although the defender does atone for these errors. The former FC Nordsjaelland defender is known for his physicality, speed and calmness on the ball, which the team missed at the start of the season when the defence was swapping and changing down to injuries and form. Now, with only two fit defenders, Okore’s absence could prove costly should his injury take longer than the international break to heal.
One player who has been a scapegoat for the team is Tom Cleverley. Earlier in the season, certain fans may have been happy to see the Manchester United loanee out of action but in recent weeks the former England man has transformed and the team missed the midfielder when he went off midway through the Swansea game. Fans have been sceptical about Cleverley and quick to blame the midfielder. Nevertheless, according to www.whoscored.com, Cleverley has a respectable 86% pass success rate, with just under one key pass a game, whereas Fabian Delph has achieved a pass success rate of 84%, and averages 1.2 key passes a game. For fans, this should be a reminder that the team needs to have Tom Cleverley. He had a good game against Sunderland, when he had the freedom to commit himself forward, which wasn’t evident during the time Lambert was in charge.
Christian Benteke is another player who has been suffering recently due to a hip problem. Fans may have been dubious about the decision to start the striker against Sunderland and also Swansea, due to the Belgian’s track record of injuries from last season. One of the injuries that kept him on the sidelines was the hip injury suffered at Carrow Road, where Libor Kozak came on to nick his first goal in claret and blue. Sherwood took a risk with Benteke. Although it worked for the drubbing of Sunderland, it may have backfired for the game at Villa Park at the weekend. With this being said, the striker has travelled with the Belgium national team so Villa fans may have to hide behind their sofas when checking on any news of his national side during the next two weeks. Benteke has seems to have found his confidence again under Sherwood, who has given the whole club a lift, and the results, bar Swansea at the weekend, over the past few weeks have reflected this.
It will be interesting to see how Sherwood would change his formula if required to do so: if Benteke does pick up another knock, the former Tottenham boss does not have a physical target man up front who can knock the ball on to the Gabriel Agbonlahor, who has blistering pace that can frighten any defender in the league. Hopefully, luck will be on the Villans’ side, although they haven’t had much of the rub of the green so far this season in terms of injuries.
Worrying times indeed , and with no fit replacements available for defence against Swansea last weekend ,when it would seem Okore played through the pain barrier, when perhaps he should have been subbed, except there was no defender on the bench. One has to question the logic of extending Donacien’s loan spell!