Aston Villa goalkeeper Tom Heaton has been sidelined with a cruciate ligament injury since January but he could return for the meeting with Wolves on December 12.
The 34-year-old finds himself behind Emiliano Martinez and Jed Steer in the pecking order but is slowly building up his fitness with appearances for the under-23s. He played 63 minutes in the reserve team’s 2-2 draw with Burnley and a full 90 minutes in their 3-2 defeat to Fulham last Friday.
As per Birmingham Live, Dean Smith has said: “Tom Heaton has played some minutes now. He played against Burnley under-23s and he played an in-house game that we had last week. He needs a few more minutes but he’s training with the first team every day.”
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Heaton still has three years left on his contract but it can’t go ignored that his last senior appearance in an Aston Villa shirt came 11 months ago. The England international was a regular upon his arrival from Burnley in the summer of 2019, but he now has Martinez to dethrone upon his return.
Smith isn’t going to rush him back into action, but Heaton should eventually make the matchday squad ahead of Steer for the second half of the season. However, he didn’t make the switch from the Clarets to warm our bench.
In other news, one of Heaton’s team-mates is nearing a return to fitness and could also be available to face Wolves this month.
