Aston Villa claimed a 2-0 win against Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
Aston Villa’s Henri Lansbury
Steve Bruce has suggested that Aston Villa’s preparations for their game with Sheffield Wednesday were disrupted by Henri Lansbury having to pull out of the squad at the last minute, the Birmingham Mail reports.
The Mail reports that the midfielder sustained a heel injury in the days before the game but was so keen to be involved against the Owls that he declared himself fit.
However, Villa had to make a last minute change to the squad as Lansbury pulled out during the warm-up, with the Mail reporting that an Achilles problem accounted for his absence.
And Bruce disclosed how frustrating it was to lose the January signing so close to the game against Wednesday kicking off.
Aston Villa’s manager Steve Bruce
“He was uncomfortable a little bit with it on Friday but thought he was going to be okay so we’ll see how it is,” he said, as reported by the Mail.
“We lost him in the warm up and that was a blow to us because it disrupted us totally. He’s playing well at the moment but we’ve managed to overcome it.”
As Bruce alluded to, luckily for Villa, the disruption did not hurt their chances of extending their recent impressive run as they dented Wednesday’s play-off hopes by claiming a 2-0 victory thanks to two goals from Jonathan Kodjia.
Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia scores their first goal past Sheffield Wednesday’s Keiren Westwood
The three points sent Villa into the top-half of the Championship and means that they go into their clash with Wigan this Saturday with four wins in their last five.
And while they will already have plenty of confidence, having Lansbury back would undoubtedly provide them with a further boost if he is able to shake off the problem that ruled him out on Saturday.
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