Boubacar Kamara hobbled off the pitch in the weekend’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace after a strong lunge from Cheick Doucouré.
The French man has been one of the highlights in Villa’s season so far, so I like so many others, was very worried at the sight of him limping off.
This evening, news broke through Gregg Evans of The Athletic that the 23-year-old will be out of action for at least a month (around 5 of Villa’s remaining 13 games).
Although Villa will be pleased that their midfielder won’t miss the remainder of the season, they will see this as a big blow.
It’s easy to see why he will be missed.
Kamara averages more tackles per game (2.5) than any other player in the Villa team. Although he plays as a deep number 6, he also drops into defence to make a third centre half when required.
It’s not all defensive though, he also tops the charts of most dribbles per 90 (1.3) according to Whoscored. His passing isn’t too shabby either with 45.6 passes on average per game with an 85% success rate.
Emery remains positive
In true Unai Emery style, the manager refuses to get dragged down by this blow and instead see’s it as an opportunity for someone else.
“Calum Chambers can play in this position and I can use other players like Jacob Ramsey, too” Emery stated.
Up next for Villa is a struggling West Ham side who have, in my opinion, one of the best defensive-minding midfielders in the league in Declan Rice. I can’t help but be worried but Emery has been here and seen this before.
He would have known that he would come across injuries between January and the end of the season. Chambers did come on for Kamara the weekend as Dendonker was missing and it appears to be something that the manager may have worked on given the fact he bigged up Chambers when asked about Kamara’s injury.
It remains to be seen how we will cope but in Unai we trust.