Steve Bruce sheds light on severity of injury Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia suffered in Burton draw

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Aston Villa suffered a setback during their draw with Burton Albion with Jonathan Kodjia having to be replaced during the first-half.

Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia celebrates scoring

Steve Bruce has handed Aston Villa fans something of a boost on a somewhat disappointing day for the club by suggesting that he does not believe that Jonathan Kodjia’s injury is that serious, the Express and Star reports.

Villa went into their clash with Burton knowing that realistically, only a continuation of their recent flawless run would be enough to give them the slightest chance to make the Championship play-offs.

And it was Kodjia that kept that dream alive as he opened the scoring at the Pirelli Stadium inside the first three minutes with his 19th league goal of the campaign. However, the next moment of note for the striker came nine minutes before the break as he had to be substituted due to injury.

But while their play-off hopes appear to have been all but dashed with Burton equalising during the second-half, Bruce suggested that there is some positive news to come out of the Villa camp regarding the situation surrounding their star striker.

“He’s got a dead leg, we don’t think it’s too serious,” he said, as reported by the Express and Star. “He was sore. We certainly missed him.

“He’s made a huge difference to us. When you analyse the awful spell we had it was when he was away.”

Although Villa will be pleased that Kodjia seems set to be back fairly soon, it will probably come as little consolation for the Villans supporters given Saturday’s results in the division.

Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce

Bruce’s men are now nine points back of the top six with just five games to go, and with a number of sides still sitting between them and the play-off places, it is surely going to take a ridiculous number of other results to go their way for Villa to stand a chance this year.

So while having Kodjia back quickly will certainly boost their chances of finishing the season strongly – no other player in the current squad has scored more than three times in the league – the draw has surely made the already-sizeable task just too great for this season.