Burnley star Maxwel Cornet is a major doubt for their upcoming Premier League clash with Aston Villa [Lancs Live].
Cornet has been outstanding since arriving at Turf Moor from Lyon for a reported fee of £12.9m at the back end of the summer transfer window.
He’s scored five goals in just nine Premier League appearances, including a sublime volley against Leicester City.
However, much to the disappointment of the Lancashire club’s fanbase, he was forced off in the first half of a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle earlier this month with a thigh injury.
Cornet looks set to miss Saturday fixture
The Clarets have only played once since then as their midweek clash with Watford was postponed, but his creativity and goalscoring threat were sorely missed in a 0-0 draw with West Ham last weekend.
It was hoped that he would be fit enough to return at least to the matchday squad for a trip to Villa Park on Saturday.
However, based on manager Sean Dyche’s update on the 25-year-old’s progress ahead of the game, it seems highly unlikely he’ll be involved.
“Maxwel is still touch and go with his thigh so we just hope it settles down sooner rather than later going into Christmas,” he said, as quoted by Lancs Live.
Lancs Live also assert that the Ivory Coast international hasn’t trained all week.
Burnley and Aston Villa both understrength
It would be a big leap to go from being unable to train during the week to featuring in a Premier League match at the weekend, and it will almost certainly be deemed too big a risk to involve him given that fixtures are set to come thick and fast in the coming weeks.
The good news for Burnley, though, is that their opponents will be even more understrength.
Marvelous Nakamba, Bertrand Traore and Leon Bailey are amongst the first-team stars to already be ruled out, while Ashley Young’s chances of playing were rated as 50/50 by Steven Gerrard [Aston Villa Twitter].
A win in Birmingham for Burnley would be enough to take them out of the relegation zone, with 17th-placed Watford’s home match against Crystal Palace one of several top-flight fixtures to already be postponed.
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