Aston Villa dealt new injury blow as crisis worsens days from Premier League return

Jaden Philogene picks up an injury on England Under-21s duty that now makes him a doubt for Aston Villa's Premier League clash with Fulham on Saturday

Jaden Philogene has become the latest Aston Villa player to pick up an injury, with the winger returning from international duty a doubt for Saturday's match with Fulham.

The congested fixture list had started to take its toll on Villa in the final weeks before the October internationals took place, with the likes of Amadou Onana, Ezri Konsa and John McGinn all absent from matches. Unai Emery will have hoped these issues would ease over the break, but instead they seem to only have worsened.

Via The Athletic, scans on Monday reportedly gave results showing Philogene to have picked up an issue playing with England Under-21s that isn't one to fear for the long run, but will likely rule him out of the Craven Cottage trip.

Leon Bailey, who Gabby Agbonlahor says has been out of sorts this season, and Emi Buendia, whose minutes have been managed returning from injury, are therefore the only fit wide attackers at Villa's disposal.

Philogene had played 84 minutes of the Young Lions' Euros qualifying win against Ukraine on Friday as a left wing-back before eventually being withdrawn for Villa team-mate Samuel Iling-Junior.

Morgan Rogers also made a second-half cameo from the bench, with Emery commenting in relation to him ahead of last month's internationals about the risk of injury his important, youthful players face when only playing for the lower age groups.

"I respect that they are not calling him for the first team, but the second team? He is not a player for the second team," the Spaniard said. "Hopefully, he will come back here in good shape.

"Last year, [Jacob] Ramsey came back injured and barely played all season which was very painful for us and we lost a lot without him. What does he gain by playing in the under-21s, Morgan Rogers?"

England Under-21s have one more match to play before Rogers is released, hosting Azerbaijan in their next qualifier tonight. The Villa manager's fingers will therefore be crossed, hoping another does not suffer the same damaging outcome as Philogene.

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