Ollie Watkins is a doubt for Villa’s trip to Bournemouth on Sunday.
England international Watkins was left out of Thursday night’s 2-1 home win over Legia Warsaw in the Europa Conference League due to feeling a ‘small pain’ in training.
The 27-year-old 13-goal striker will be assessed as Villa go through pre-match preparation at Bodymoor Heath tomorrow ahead of the trip to the Vitality Stadium, where boss Unai Emery locks horns with a former La Liga foe in Andoni Iraola.
Villa, currently fourth, are looking to build on their Premier League away record after success in the league last time out at Tottenham.
Emery said of Watkins: “He is going to be a doubt for Sunday, but we are adding other players, like Jhon Duran, (Nicolo) Zaniolo, (Jacob) Ramsey getting more minutes.
“He is not completely not available for Sunday, we are going to wait for Saturday and it depends if we can take the risk with him or not and we know how he feels for one match, for 90 minutes, with the demand we will face on Sunday.
“We think only on Sunday, and at the moment 50/50.”
Villa also have midfield regular Boubacar Kamara serving a one-match suspension after collecting his fifth league yellow card of the season at Spurs last time out.
A fine run of form has seen Emery’s men gatecrash a top-four spot ahead of this weekend’s fixtures and Villa could, should results involving the three teams above them go their way, finish the weekend top of the pile.
Emery, predictably, is staying grounded. He said: “At the moment…but in 38 matches we have to be very, very consistent. There are other teams contenders more than us to be there, but now we are and we want to compete for a long time, of course.
“Tomorrow is very important, but those three points are the only three points we are getting or not.”
Bournemouth have found some form under Iraola and won three of their last four games, including a fine 2-0 home effort over Newcastle.
“Their reaction was fantastic after a very bad start,” Emery said of the Cherries. “When I am analysing Bournemouth I am watching the ideal style Iraola is setting, like at Rayo Vallecano in Spain where he was working before.
“I really respect him, a very good coach, he is connecting now with his style and their players. They have really increasing their level and are getting better and stronger at home.”
