Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia fractured his cheekbone in a training-ground accident with a team-mate and will soon likely be out for »two or three weeks », says Dean Smith.
The Ivory Coast international and Marvelous Nakamba fought during training, and additional scans revealed that the extent of the harm, though there were no worries .
« The only one who’s now injured is Jonathan Kodjia, he has fractured a cheekbone in a training-ground injury, » Smith said at Friday’s press conference. « He just clashed heads with Marvelous Nakamba at a non-competitive part of instruction.
« We thought it was ok but they have picked up a fracture in the hospital so he’s had a surgery on this today and will probably be out for another two or three weeks. »
Smith said Villa will consider a facial mask for Kodjia: »He will be back non-contact and we’ll have to see how it goes. I believe we have seen a lot of these accidents where the masks are worn; we’ll surely be considering this longer down the line. »
Villa take on West Ham on Monday Night Football, and Smith has called on the fans to provide plenty of air for the trip of the side of Manuel Pellegrini.
« The last match in Villa Park it was totally rocking, » explained Smith. « I said after the Bournemouth game which was our very best performance and we ended up never getting anything out of the match when we probably needed to.
« Everton was a more demanding game but we managed to get that win and we all had the place rocking so we need to do this again below the floodlights on Monday. »
West Ham is being expected by smith in particular signing Sebastien Haller – to issue Aston Villa in attack – however states that the Hammers will’ve been working hard in their defence.
« They are surely a danger going forward, » stated the 48-year-old. « I saw their game against Watford another day and it was end to end – it might happen to be 5-5.
« If you look at the expected-goals table they will be at the top for entertainment. I believe that they could score a lot but concede a good deal – I am guessing I understand what they have been working during the period.
« In signing Haller up front he seems a great center forward. They paid a lot of cash for him but he has a couple of good intentions already and seems a few. »
Haller, who West Ham purchased for #45m, was contrasted to Villa striker Wesley that had been bought for #22m.
« Financially there’s a good deal of money between the both of these, » said Smith. « They are both best players that need to be playing in the Premier League.
« There’s going to be individuals who will put comparisons but we have told Wes only concentrate on his own game. Concentrate on what he’s doing and then go and get the following performance like he did against Everton.
« They have got a lot of similarities. When I watched plenty of Wes, he made a lot of goals in addition to scored them. That was a major part of his game which I enjoyed and attracted me to him. I think that’s most likely among the biggest gaps »
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