Aston Villa are waiting to make a proper assessment of Matty Cash after he was forced off for the final half-hour in the defeat at Spurs.
Cash felt a problem in his calf and made way for Diego Carlos with Villa tied at 1-1 in North London on Sunday afternoon. He was quickly followed off the pitch by goal scorer Morgan Rogers, who is also now being checked over by the medical team.
However, Unai Emery didn’t sound too pessimistic about either player as he spoke to the media in his post-match press conference, with Villa next in action in the Champions League at Club Brugge on Wednesday before heading to Liverpool in the Premier League next Saturday ahead of the November international break.
“I think Morgan will be ok because he wanted to carry on,” said Emery. “I decided to play some minutes with two strikers. Cash felt something in his calf. Hopefully not a lot [of time out].
Rogers had given Villa a 32nd-minute lead at Spurs from a corner but they were pegged back by Brennan Johnson just after half-time and a quickfire Dominic Solanke brace took the game away before James Maddison slipped in a late free-kick.
Emery added: “We started the match like we were planning. At half-time the plan for the second half was to try to keep it. They scored the first goal. We had chances to score a second goal but they were pushing.
“We accepted the result. We have to try to be consistent. We had our chances in our transition and set-pieces. But they were clinical today.”
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided an update on Morgan Rogers and Matty Cash after both were withdrawn during our 4-1 loss to Tottenham.
Despite taking the lead in the first half and limiting Tottenham through the opening 45 minutes, Villa were woeful after the break and surrendered that advantage.
With our own mistakes being punished and the hosts emerging as the better side in terms of the intensity and energy that they played with, it capped off a really poor week after our results against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace prior to Sunday.
It doesn’t get any easier for Villa either as we’re in Champions League action in midweek with a trip to Club Brugge, before we head to Anfield next weekend to take on Liverpool.
The last thing that Emery needs now is for key players to be ruled out injured, and there was a scare or two in at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with both Rogers and Cash being taken off in the second half.
As per The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell, Emery allayed fears over Rogers as he noted that his issue wasn’t too serious. However, in contrast, Cash felt pain in his calf, and so that could now result in a spell on the sidelines for the Polish international.
That was the expectation in relation to Rogers, as although he went down and needed treatment after a number of heavy tackles, he was frustrated to be coming off as he felt as though he could continue.
In contrast, Cash was forced off with his knock, and so there will undoubtedly be further scans and tests ahead this week to determine the severity of his calf issue.
Should he face another spell out, it will be interesting to see if Emery plays it safe and goes with Diego Carlos and shifts Ezri Konsa to right-back, or if we’ll see Kosta Nedeljkovic get a chance to come in and prove that he can be a viable solution moving forward in that position.
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