Dean Smith provides injury update on Aston Villa quartet ahead of Birmingham clash

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Villa take on bitter rivals Birmingham on Sunday afternoon at Villa Park.

Dean Smith has delivered an update on four injury doubts for Sunday’s Midlands derby clash against Birmingham City, as quoted by Aston Villa’s official website.

Captain James Chester managed just 50 minutes for Wales against Denmark before being replaced after picking up a knock in the win against Derby, while John McGinn is suffering from the heavy schedule since his move from Hibernian.

Meanwhile, Birkir Bjarnason is looking to overcome a groin problem which prevented him from featuring for Iceland during the international break, while Neil Taylor was forced to pull out of the Wales squad.

Smith delivered a verdict on all four ahead of Sunday’s clash, but could only confirm that one of those four players – Taylor – would be fit enough and available to face Birmingham. He is still waiting on Chester and McGinn, while Bjarnason is a major doubt.

“It’s still a bit early for Chester and McGinn to be fully assessed. But I’m hopeful that both of them will be ok,” Smith said. “Taylor will be back training with us today. He’ll be available for selection as long as he gets through the next few days.

“We’ll be leaving it late to make a decision on both of them, but they won’t have lost any fitness. Chester played 50 minutes for Wales and McGinn has featured in a lot of games for us.

“Bjarnason is struggling a bit – he’s suffering some inguinal pain around the groin area. He’s not really trained these last couple of weeks, so we’ll have to wait and see on him.”

Villa will be expecting to take all three points on Sunday, with home advantage pushing the bout into their favour especially after their excellent 3-0 away win over Frank Lampard’s Derby County last time out.

However, with key players Chester and McGinn potentially sidelined, Villa are significantly weakened and that could see Garry Monk’s side capitalise. They have won four of their last six Championship outings.