Unai Emery has given an update on Ollie Watkins after the Aston Villa striker pulled out of the England squad through injury.
Following the international break, Villa travel to Tottenham on Sunday, looking to continue their good run of form after a difficult start to the season.
However, they could be forced to do so without star striker Watkins after he suffered a painful injury during the Three Lions’ friendly win against Wales last week.
The 29-year-old scored the second goal of the 3-0 win at Wembley but had to be subbed off at half-time following a nasty collision with the post as he was attempting to tap-in from close range.
He later withdrew from the squad before England’s 5-0 win in Latvia, which booked their place at next summer’s World Cup, with his participation in the Spurs clash in doubt.
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However, speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Emery is confident that his No.9 will be fit in time: ‘Tomorrow we will train again, and normally he will be ready for Sunday.’
The Villa boss also had positive updates on the fitness of several other players, including Emi Buendia and Jadon Sancho: ‘Both of them are training normally the whole week, and they will be available for Sunday if they are training well tomorrow.
‘Tyrone Mings is getting better, progressively. He’s training this week individually to add to us. Tomorrow we will see how he is.
‘The idea tomorrow is for him to train with the team and, after the training session, to decide if he will travel with us or not to London.’
Watkins has endured a poor start to the season, scoring just once in 10 games across all competitions, with Villa in an underwhelming 13th in the Premier League table.
They are unbeaten in four games however, winning their last two, but Emery is wary of the threat Tottenham possess, adding: ‘Premier League, every match we are facing is being very difficult, and of course Tottenham is one of the contender teams to be in the top seven.
‘This year they are really playing fantastic, getting good results, they are now in the top with 14 points, and playing at home, they are feeling strong.
‘For us, it’s really a huge challenge, how we can face them, showing our capacity and how we are playing against them as a team, individually how we are responding, this is my challenge.
‘Of course, they added some players in their squad, very important players. I think now, the coach is of course doing very good work like he did when he was in Brentford, and he deserved to get something more.’
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