Every game Youri Tielemans will miss for Aston Villa as replacement set to join
It’s been a frustrating past few days for Youri Tielemans.
Tielemans has been excellent for Aston Villa this season, having once again cemented his place in Unai Emery’s starting XI.
However, as a result of both his standout performances and his contract situation, with his current deal expiring in the summer of 2027, Tielemans’ Villa Park future has been in some doubt this winter.
Transfer talk only grew louder following Emery and Tielemans’ touchline spat against Fenerbahce last Thursday, and things have gone from bad to worse since.
Indeed, Tielemans suffered an ankle injury against Newcastle on Sunday, which forced him to withdraw from the match with 15 minutes to play.
Youri Tielemans set for months on the sidelines
It simply can’t be understated just how important Tielemans is to Aston Villa.
As per Sofascore, the Belgian international is averaging a 7.18/10 rating per Premier League game this season, and is averaging an 84 per cent pass success rate.
He’s also completed 69 per cent of his dribbles as well as winning 58 per cent of his ground duels, and has chipped in with four assists in the league too.
- Tielemans has made 121 appearances for Aston Villa in all competitions
- He’s scored nine goals and provided 22 assists
- His overall pass success rate across his Villa career is 85.6 per cent
In short, the 28-year-old has been defining what a top number eight should be, in that he’s strong in both the defensive and attacking sides of the game, providing Emery with an integral central midfield orchestrator.
So, the news that Emery’s orchestra will be without its conductor won’t be music to the ears of anyone connected with Aston Villa, but just how long will Tielemans be absent for?
Well, as confirmed by Unai Emery himself on Wednesday, Tielemans will be out injured for between eight-10 weeks.
That means Tielemans may not return until the second week of April, and so here’s every game he could miss between now and then.
Villa end January with a Europa League clash with Salzburg on Thursday night, before a hectic February sees them play: Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle (FA Cup), Leeds and Wolves respectively.
Emery’s side currently only have three games scheduled in March, those being: Chelsea, Man United and West Ham respectively, but would play an FA Cup fifth round tie on the weekend of 7 March if they get past Newcastle.
The FA Cup quarter-final weekend is scheduled for 4 and 5 April, with Villa’s following Premier League game being Nottingham Forest on 11 April, and so it’s somewhere around here that Tielemans could return.
Emery already ‘confirms’ Tielemans replacement
Given that his central midfield options were already stretched thin before Tielemans’ injury setback, Emery evidently feels he needs to dip back into the transfer market before the 2 February deadline.
Ross Barkley, John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara all remain injured, leaving just Harvey Elliott, Amadou Onana and Lamare Bogarde as natural central midfield options.
However, it doesn’t appear to be staying that way for long according to an X post from Aston Villa correspondent for Birmingham Live John Townley on Wednesday.
Townley states that Emery has “essentially confirmed” Villa are re-signing former midfielder Douglas Luiz, who is currently on loan with Nottingham Forest from Juventus.
Luiz, 27, left Villa Park for Turin in the summer of 2024, but is now seemingly set to make his return to the West Midlands to shore up Emery’s midfield options once again.
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