Top scorer Jonathan Kodjia limped off in the first half against Burton with a dead leg.
Kodjia had increased his tally to the season to 19 goals before his enforced withdrawal and any absence would be a big loss.
Whilst Villa’s playoff hopes have now been extinguished, the remaining games are arguably as important given our ambitions next term.
As has been pondered on the Podcast, the final fixtures of the season are best treated as our “Pre-Pre-Season”.
Kodjia will undoubtedly be central to Bruce’s plans, but we’ve yet to find a way of accommodating the Ivorian alongside another striker comfortably.
Equally, Villa have become incredibly reliant upon Kodjia’s goals. It goes without saying that whilst Kodjia’s goals are naturally welcome, a dependency upon him scoring them alone is not.
In short, we need to learn to better with him in the side and more adaptable when he’s not.
Bruce on Kodjia’s injury:
“He’s got a dead leg, we don’t think it’s too serious. He was sore. We certainly missed him. He’s on a great scoring run at the moment so long may that continue. We hope he will be alright for next week.”
The positive news is that Kodjia is expected to feature this weekend after releasing details of his recuperation with the help of intensive sports physio.
DEAD LEG INFO
There are three grades of severity for dead leg, starting from the grade 1 mild contusion, to grade 3 which represents deep crushing of the muscle and requires using crutches for one or two months.
The problem with this type of injury is that applying massage too soon after the injury may cause the occurrence of a condition called myositis ossificans (the ossification of the muscle).
The total recovery prognosis for the light version of dead leg is 7-10 days before you can restart your training and running.
Source: Sports Physio Ireland