Dean Smith has confirmed that forgotten Villa man Micah Richards has trained with the squad, but is still a long way off being match fit.
New boss Smith confirmed that Richards is still being plauged by injury issues that have not seen him play a competitive game in over two years.
Richards was not considered for selection by Bruce, with the defender having serious knee injuries that have sidelined him for the entire of the former Villa manager’s reign at the club.
After watching Richards train, Smith confirmed that the defender is a way off his best, and would not be good enough for Championship football in his current state.
Speaking ahead of his first game in charge of the Villans against Swansea City, Smith said, via the Birmingham Mail:
Micah has trained with us but he’s not played for a long time so his fitness is not near to be in contention at all at the moment.
We’ll see how his fitness builds over the next month or two.
Smith also confirmed that the defender had been on a special programme, as Villa look to get Richards back to first team fitness.
He’s been on a special programme.
The training minutes he hasn’t had so far.
We’ll see how his body adapts to those training minutes as we go.
Villa are still after defensive re-enforcements, with Dean Smith looking to strengthen what has been a leaky defence so far this season.
