Aston Villa fans will rightly feel they simply cannot catch a break when it comes to injuries.
The news that Christian Benteke will return to the matchday squad—provided all is well in Friday’s training!—was offset by the sickening revelation that Libor Kozak will be sidelined until early 2014. The Czech striker broke his leg in January and had returned to training, but the pin inserted fell loose, required a reinstatement and he will not return to action until 2015.
Jores Okore tore his ACL in 2013-14 and missed the entire season, Ron Vlaar is consistently nursing a mystery calf problem and the club’s last two prior captains—Martin Laursen and Stiliyan Petrov—have been forced to retire due to illness or injury issues.
The fresh Kozak news comes as a very timely reminder for Villa fans to temper their expectations for Benteke’s return to the mix: He’ll be on the bench at best against Manchester City, but if his exceptionally slow return from his hip flexor ailment is any indicator, you’ll know better than to get your hopes up early on.
Paul Lambert threw the Belgian back into the XI as soon as he was passed physically fit, but it took a Christmas visit to national team physio Lieven Maesschalck to repair his mental state and unlock his potential once again.
Benteke was a little patchy in the months to come, but his returning game against Sunderland saw him rip the opposing defence to shreds—even if he didn’t score. Kozak’s set-back will affect the entire Villa team and his striking colleague will be no different; we could see a very hesitant, careful Benteke whose trying to avoid a similar fate as a result.
Once he’s back to his best, he’ll be undeniably fantastic. Sometimes repaired Achilles tendons are structurally stronger than before, and it shouldn’t be too long before he returns to a one-in-two goalscoring rate.
Benteke will single-handedly change Villa’s attacking prospects; no longer will the team rely on quick, forced counterattacks and fail to produce spells of pressure on the ball. It’s a bit of a cliché, but he holds the ball up so defiantly, streams of midfielders have time to pour forward and join the advance.
From a technical standpoint he improved dramatically in 2013-14, and although his goalscoring ratio dipped, his aerial dominance and overbearing strength did not disappear.
His link-up with Andi Weimann has always been great and the Austrian players far better with his big target man around. Gabby Agbonlahor could be shifted wide too, where his pace against a full-back becomes a primary weapon for the team.
A shell-shocked Aston Villa limped over the Premier League line last season, and sans Benteke the club lost six of their last nine games on the way to scraping survival. With 10 points in the bag and a returning Belgian beast optimism is high in B6—but short-term patience is still required.
