Kamara, Konsa & Onana: Latest Aston Villa injury news and return dates ahead of Liverpool clash

Aston Villa face a stern challenge this week when they welcome league leaders Liverpool to Villa Park on Wednesday evening – and a number of key injuries will make an uphill battle even tougher.

Unai Emery was able to welcome Ollie Watkins back into the fray this weekend, but Ezri Konsa, Amadou Onana and Leon Bailey were among the names added to a growing list of players with fitness problems and Villa had six first-teamers missing for the disappointing 1-1 draw against ten-man Ipswich Town on Saturday.

Salt was added to the wound when Boubacar Kamara, playing as a makeshift centre-back, was withdrawn after just 16 minutes of the match. With a huge midweek Premier League match in prospect, we’ve collected all of the latest information of Villa’s potential absentees below along with their expected return dates when available.

Konsa & Kamara among defensive doubts

It isn’t yet clear why Kamara was forced off, but he signalled to the bench that he needed to be taken off after just quarter of an hour over the weekend and was replaced by Tyrone Mings, who is himself just coming back from a brief injury lay-off.

Emery only offered a brief post-match update on the Frenchman, who has been pressed into service as a centre-back due to injuries elsewhere in Villa’s ailing defence, saying that he didn’t know the precise nature of the injury but that “I think it is not a lot”. Whether it will be enough to keep Kamara out of the Liverpool match is unknown as it stands.

England defender Konsa, meanwhile, picked up a muscular injury during last weekend’s 2-1 FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur and was ruled out of the game against Ipswich. He is back in individual training already but looks unlikely to make the Liverpool game, with Emery suggesting he would need another week before he was able to play. That suggests that next weekend’s game against Chelsea is more likely – which would be good news, as loanee Axel Disasi will be ineligible to face his parent club.

Elsewhere, Pau Torres and Matty Cash remain out. The Spanish centre-half picked up a serious ankle injury in January and isn’t expected back until early March at best. Cash, meanwhile, has an unspecified muscle issue and was ruled out until late February at least. He will likely miss the next two matches at the very least.

Fresh concerns for Onana and Bailey

A thigh injury has restricted summer signing Onana to just 45 minutes of football across the last four matches, and Emery told the press prior to the game against Ipswich that he “still has a lot of work to do” to reach full fitness, but refused to give a timeline for his likely return, saying that he will be out for “weeks, but I don’t know if it one, two, or three.” He is not expected to play against Liverpool.

Jamaican winger Bailey, meanwhile, was an unexpected absentee for the Ipswich match. Emery told reporters after the game that the winger had felt “a small pain” but that it “is not a very important injury.” He added that he was hopeful that Bailey would be available for the coming games, and he should be in the squad on Wednesday evening.

The final player on the injury report is midfielder Ross Barkley, who has missed the last seven games with a calf issue. Emery hasn’t offered any fresh updates on his likely return, having initially speculated that he would be back in training by last week. He is not expected to be sidelined for much longer but is a major doubt for the coming matches against Liverpool and Chelsea.