View: Diego Carlos return from injury is a Christmas miracle for Aston Villa, Unai Emery will be delighted
Aston Villa have been handed a Christmas miracle with news that Diego Carlos could be set to return from his serious achilles injury early in 2023.
The Brazilian defender ruptured his achilles in just his second appearance for the club following a £27m deal from Sevilla in August, and has been on the sidelines ever since with a rehabilitation programme in place.
It was initially expected that he would miss the rest of the season for Villa such was the seriousness of the injury when it occurred, but the club were given a huge injury boost this week as the defender travelled to Dubai for a warm-weather training camp.
According to a report from the Express & Star (9 December), Carlos is hopeful that he will be able to return to action soon after the club’s Boxing Day fixture against Liverpool.
The previous management were forced to bring in Jan Bednarek on deadline day as extra cover because of his injury, while Tyrone Mings was brought back into the fold after initially being dropped.
But with Emery in charge now, he will know all about Carlos and will surely look to involve him as soon as possible once he’s fully fit again.
Considering the nature of the injury and now the recovery, it can surely be considered that this is a Christmas miracle for Villa and they will look to be much stronger at the back for the second half of the season.
Emery is someone who likes to build his team on a strong defence first and foremost, and there is a big argument that he is the best defender at the club when everyone is fit and available.
He is quick, strong, great aerially and also very good on the ball. Last season in 34 appearances in La Liga he managed to complete 87.6% of his passes according to WhoScored, while so far this season Mings has completed 83% and Konsa has completed 83.8%.
Aerially Carlos won 2.4 duels per game, while Mings and Konsa have managed to win just 1.7 and 1.8 per game this season.
Statistically, he’s the best. The eye test tells you he’s the best and now Emery gets to judge too, so we’ll find out how he feels soon.
In other Aston Villa news, Philippe Coutinho experiment must be brought to an end ASAP