Pau Torres and Ian Maatsen both sustained injuries during Aston Villa's 2-1 Premier League defeat by Nottingham Forest at Villa Park on Saturday, according to Football Insider. The outlet reports that Torres suffered a hamstring problem while Maatsen picked up an ankle issue, leaving Unai Emery with significant defensive concerns ahead of a busy week.
Bryan King, a former senior scout at the club, told Football Insider that Torres could be sidelined for approximately four weeks. He suggested Maatsen's recovery might take longer, estimating between six and eight weeks, and warned that the next three months could prove difficult for the manager.
Those timelines would rule both players out of tonight's League Cup trip to the Coventry Building Society Arena to face Coventry City, as well as Saturday's Premier League visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Villa do not have another fixture until after the upcoming international break.
Emery brought in ten players during the summer transfer window but has so far leaned heavily on familiar personnel. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Alejandro Garnacho and Matteo Ruggeri have all seen limited involvement since arriving, though Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson have started matches and João Gomes featured prominently in the Champions League win at Club Brugge earlier this month.
King questioned why the manager had been reluctant to integrate the new recruits sooner, arguing that the club created its own difficulties by selling several established starters over the summer. He described some of the incoming players as average relative to the money spent, pointing specifically to Harwood-Bellis, who arrived from Southampton following Ezri Konsa's departure to Arsenal.
With the transfer window now closed until January 2027, Emery must work with the squad he has. The injuries to Torres and Maatsen leave him little choice but to accelerate the introduction of his summer signings into the starting line-up, beginning with the short journey to Coventry tonight.
