Unai Emery has said that Aston Villa captain John McGinn is set to be unavailable for “a few weeks” due to a hamstring injury.
McGinn, 29, limped off just before half-time of Villa’s 3-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Villa Park on Saturday. The injury could see him miss Villa’s game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League on October 2.
If Emery’s estimate is correct McGinn could miss that game, as well as Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie with Wycombe, plus potentially Premier League games against Ipswich Town and Manchester United.
Emery said: “It is a hamstring injury. When we arrived here, he had a hamstring injury against Tottenham in January and today I think it is less than that injury. But he will be not available, I think, for a few weeks.”
Villa went 1-0 down to a first half strike by Matheus Cunha, and didn’t have a shot on target until around the 70 minute mark, after which they clinched victory with goals from Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa, and Jhon Duran.
Emery admitted that Villa’s performance in the first half was the worst since he took over in 2022.
“We were suffering in the first half more than normal”, he said. “I think it’s the worst match we played since I have been here. Was a little bit strange. We weren’t playing with energy. We were a little bit passive. When we were without the ball, Wolves were keeping it for a long time. But we expected that – they are a good team, they have a good structure. They deserved to be ahead. It was a very poor performance in the first half.
“But in the second half it changed completely. We brought on some fresh players. We tried to be more active and higher in the press, to keep possession for longer. We started changing the match. We were receiving the ball higher. We played with our heart in the second half.
“The supporters were very important in the second half in transmitting the energy.”
GO DEEPER
The joy of Aston Villa’s devilish left-sided attacks
(Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
