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Jan. 30, 2026 9:33 am EST
Unai Emery, the Aston Villa manager, has played down fears over Ollie Watkins’ injury and says the forward could be in contention to face Brentford on Sunday.
Watkins was forced off after 35 minutes of Aston Villa’s 3-2 win over RB Salzburg in their final game of the Europa League initial phase on Thursday night.
The England forward was holding the back of his right leg as he left the field and afterwards Emery confirmed Watkins would have a scan on Friday.
But speaking on Friday afternoon, the Spaniard said the results were positive and that a decision would be made over Watkins’ availability for Brentford’s visit
“We will see tomorrow,” Emery said. “Today he had a scan, and it’s not a clear injury.
“He was tired yesterday and the scan is not giving us bad information. We will see tomorrow if he’s not feeling comfortable or if he’s feeling comfortable to decide to be with us on Sunday.”
Ross Barkley trained with the first team on Friday and could feature against Brentford, but Boubacar Kamara, John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Andres Garcia and Alysson are all sidelined.
Watkins, 30, has made 33 appearances for Villa so far this season, scoring eight goals.
Villa have added a new striker to their squad this month in Tammy Abraham from Besiktas but the former Chelsea forward was a direct replacement for Donyell Malen, who joined AS Roma on loan with an obligation, while Evann Guessand is on the verge of joining Crystal Palace on loan.
Emery is currently facing an injury crisis in midfield, with Kamara ruled out for the remainder of the season and Tielemans and McGinn both facing a number of weeks out.