It has emerged that the reason Villa full-back Ritchie De Laet has not participated in any of the club’s pre-season friendlies is because he has been sidelined with a broken wrist, picked up 2 weeks ago during a training ground incident.
The 28-year-old Belgium international, who joined Villa for £2.5 million last summer from Leicester City, missed most of the 2016/17 season after he picked up a serious knee injury. He was set to return to action this pre-season, but that has been delayed due to his wrist injury.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a serious break, and he is now just days away from making a full recovery. He should return to training at some point next week, ahead of Villa’s opening game against Hull on August 5th.
However, when he is fully fit and ready to play again, it’s uncertain what his role in Bruce’s team will be. De Laet is widely thought of as a right back or a right-wing back, but Villa have a plethora of options in these positions (Bree, Hutton, and Elmohamady).
Everyone knows that Bruce likes to play three central defenders, but come the start of the season, Villa might only have three senior central defenders (Chester, Terry, and Samba) available to them. Therefore, De Laet might have to settle for a place as a reserve center-back. Alternatively, Bruce could also consider using De Laet as a reserve left-wing back.
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