Aston Villa will travel to Stoke City on Saturday hoping to end their bad run of form in the Championship.
Aston Villa fans are in meltdown on Twitter after Dean Smith revealed that Jack Grealish will not be available for their trip to Stoke City on Saturday.
Villa posted on their official Twitter account that Grealish will not return for the weekend encounter, nor will midfield duo Tom Carroll and Henri Lansbury. Centre-back duo James Chester and Axel Tuanzebe also won’t be available.
The absence of their star man, who has been out of action since December, is the one that is hitting Vila the most because they have missed his presence and creativity in the middle of the park.
Since the turn of the year, the West Midlands outfit have only recorded one win and that was against bottom-of-the-table Ipswich Town.
Most Villa supporters would now admit that their hopes of securing a playoff spot are now over as they are nine points behind the promotion pack and their recent form doesn’t suggest that they will catch their rivals.
These were Smith comments on Grealish and Carroll:
“No, Saturday will come too soon for him,” Smith told AVTV. “He’s still working very hard on the training ground. He has done bits and bobs with us.
“Tom [Carroll] is back on the grass, but Saturday will come too soon for him. He should be ready for Derby.”
Here is a selection of Villa fans reacting to Smith’s comments on Twitter:
Villa have a number of big matches coming up in these next few weeks starting with a trip to Stoke City before they host Frank Lampard’s Derby County on home soil.
They will then make the short trip to St Andrew’s where they will take on bitter rivals Birmingham City as they will be looking to do the double over their neighbours after beating them 4-2 during the reverse fixture.
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