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Villa boss Smith confirms Traore will be out for a month

 

Dean Smith has confirmed that Aston Villa have been dealt an injury blow with the news that Bertrand Traore will be out for around a month.

The forward suffered a hamstring issue during Villa’s opening-day defeat at Watford and will not be back until after the international break in September.

This is coming ahead of Smith’s first home game of the season against Newcastle on Saturday and sees Ollie Watkins remain on the sidelines after he failed to recover from the knee problem that ruled him out at Vicarage Road.

Smith is hopeful the striker will be fit to face his former club Brentford on August 28.

“Bertrand Traore suffered a hamstring injury in the game last week, so he’s going to be out until just after the international break,” said Smith at his pre-match press conference.

“Ollie Watkins, I don’t expect to play. He’s not healed as quick as we would have liked so far. I’m hopeful that he’ll be back for Brentford.

“If not, he’ll definitely be back after the international break. He suffered a knee injury. I don’t know too much about what it was but we were hopeful he’d be ready for tomorrow, but I don’t expect him to play.

“It was sod’s law that someone who hasn’t been injured for the last three years gets injured the week before the season starts. Other than that though, we are fine.”

Villa scored a couple of late goals as they started the campaign with a 3-2 defeat at newly-promoted Watford, with summer signing Danny Ings getting on the scoresheet.

Smith knows his team must be better defensively if they are to get their first points on the board on Saturday in front of a packed Villa Park.

read alsoAston Villa beat Tottenham and Rangers to the signing of Chukwuemeka

“We understand the quality that we’ve got with Danny Ings. He’s a top goalscorer in the Premier League and he was one that we wanted to get,” said the Villa boss.

 

 

 

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