Wesley Moraes has been out of action since January 2020 with an anterior cruciate ligament knee injury and all that Aston Villa fans want to know is when he could return.
Dean Smith hasn’t given an exact timescale on when he is expecting the Brazilian striker back, but it will likely be this season as he is currently completing his rehabilitation on grass.
Some supporters may not be pleased with Smith’s latest update on the 24-year-old, though, as it appears that he is some way from returning with only three months of the season remaining.
In quotes reported by Birmingham Live, the Villa manager said: “It’s a box ticking exercise now, his aerobic cap has been built but it’s withstanding different pressures on the knee.”
It has been more than a year since Wesley’s injury and there is still no transparency on progress. Smith said he would consider bringing in another striker before the January transfer window closed depending on the timescale of his recovery, but that didn’t happen.
A return this month seems unlikely if he is still struggling with different pressures on his knee, so Villa are going to be hugely reliant on Ollie Watkins for most of the campaign. The 25-year-old has already played every minute of every Premier League game this season, so Villa are gambling on him staying fit.
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Fans should be irked by Smith’s update on Wesley. Villa needed another striker if he wasn’t going to play much part of the season, as Keinan Davis isn’t a viable backup for Watkins.
The 22-year-old has scored only two goals since 2018 and has amassed just 48 minutes of Premier League football this season, so he clearly doesn’t have his manager’s trust if Watkins was out of action.
Wesley cannot return soon enough, but we’ll just have to keep waiting on when that may be.
