Aston Villa are not a one-man team but without Jack Grealish, they were nowhere near the side that has been in contention for Europe this season.
Dean Smith’s side looked lost without their captain and talisman, who was out with a shin injury sustained in training on Friday.
With Grealish sitting in the stands in a red puffer jacket, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes grabbed the chance to shine in front of watching England head coach Gareth Southgate as Leicester ran out 2-1 winners.
“Jack had some discomfort during training on Friday and we pulled him out,” said Villa boss Smith. “It’s not a recurrence of an injury, it’s not a long-term injury – he just had some mild discomfort.
“We’ll assess it and find out where we go from here. Knowing Jack as I do, I’m sure he’ll be pushing to get back as soon as possible.”
The BBC have reported that Grealish could be out for as long as a month, although Smith is hopeful Villa’s talisman could be fit for the Premier League clash with Leeds United next weekend.
He added: “We will just assess it, I am an eternal optimist and I’ll hope he is back for Leeds next week but I’ll leave it to the medical staff.”
While admitting Grealish’s absence was a “loss”, Smith felt his side should have done more against Leicester.
“Jack is going to be a loss because he’s an exceptional player but we still had a good enough team to beat Leicester,” said Smith.
“Unfortunately they were better than us in the first half. Our big players didn’t turn up, whereas theirs did.”
There were rumours before the game that Grealish was going to be out and Smith wants to find out how the news leaked.
“I was made aware of the rumours and if that came from our training ground, I will reprimand whoever has put it out there,” said the Villa manager. “We will certainly get to the bottom of it.”
Leicester on the rise
Leicester increased the gap to fifth-placed Chelsea to six points and their manager Brendan Rodgers is determined to secure Champions League football.
“When I came in, I said on the first day my ambition was to get regular European football and see if we could disrupt the market and challenge the big boys,” said Rodgers.
“Everyone knows what Champions League football brings to a club and a city, but I tend not to think about it too much.”
Rodgers was particularly impressed by Leicester’s first-half performance.
“I thought it was an outstanding team performance in the first half – we pressed the game aggressively and we limited Aston Villa to not many chances,” he said.
“From a footballing perspective it was great to watch but in the second half we had to dig in and show we can defend as a team.”
Leicester pulled a sluggish Villa all over the place for the first 45 minutes and took the lead in the 19th minute.
Barnes squared to Maddison to curl a low shot in off the post after Youri Tielemans’ long ball up to Jamie Vardy from which Ezri Konsa made an unconvincing header.
Barnes fired into the roof of the net in the 23rd minute after Vardy’s left-foot shot proved too hot to handle for Emiliano Martínez following Tielemans’ pass.
Villa’s lifeline came in the 48th minute. Matt Targett’s cross was missed by John McGinn and the unmarked Bertrand Traore slid the ball past Kasper Schmeichel.
Maddison’s free kick was superbly tipped wide by Martínez before he was forced off with a hip injury.
“He just felt it in the game so we had to take him off as a precaution,” said Rodgers.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3kgScbV
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