Aaron Ramsey injury set-back could derail Aston Villa pre-season plans
Aston Villa loanee Aaron Ramsey has been dealt another injury blow after the conclusion of his highly productive spell at Middlesbrough.
After spending the first half of the season at Norwich City, Ramsey, 20, joined Michael Carrick at Boro in the January transfer window and never looked back.
His spell at the Riverside Stadium included an impressive five goals and one assist from just 11 Championship appearances, which in turn, saw him called up to the England Under-20s squad for the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Argentina.
However, the young midfielder has been forced to withdraw from the squad due to injury, his second major issue of the season.
Ramsey was sidelined for seven games earlier in the season due to a serious knee injury as well as missing the last six games of Middlesbrough’s Championship season with this current ankle injury.
Picking up these types of serious injuries early in a career can’t do a player any good, and this will be a huge worry for Unai Emery when considering his long-term future at Villa Park.
In the short-term though, Ramsey will be praying that the ankle issue won’t keep him sidelined for too much longer, with pre-season training likely to be his one major opportunity to prove his worth to Emery ahead of next season.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Alan Hutton predicted that pre-season would be where Emery adjudicated Aston Villa’s crop of youngsters, including Ramsey, Cameron Archer and Tim Iroegbunam.
“The position Aston Villa are in at this moment in time, they’re really chasing and it’s not really the time at this moment to be giving the youth players many opportunities,” he said.
“If they were sitting 10th, nothing to play for, then yeh, the likes of him [Iroegbunam] would probably be playing, but the time for these younger players under the new manager will be in pre-season.
“He will be trying to develop and mould the squad into what he wants and give everybody an opportunity to stake their claim, so it will be a big pre-season for Iroegbunam and some of the other younger boys.”
If Ramsey harbours ambitions to feature with Aston Villa’s first-team next season he will need to shrug off this troublesome injury and get himself fully fit and firing for pre-season.
Otherwise, it could be a case of another loan spell in the EFL or looking for a permanent suitor in the summer transfer window.
In other Aston Villa news, the future of this loanee hangs in the balance as contract talks await.