We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park…
Jacob Ramsey has suffered a “massive blow” by suffering an injury for the England Under-21s while playing at the European Championships.
Ramsey, 22, flew back to England after Sunday’s quarter-final win over Portugal, in which he was forced off with an ankle injury due to a nasty challenge.
The Daily Mail reported on 4 July that the Aston Villa attacker will head to see a specialist and “is facing a race to prove his fitness for Aston Villa’s start to the season”.
Ramsey will already miss the final against Spain on Saturday (8 July) and Hutton is now worried that he’ll miss a big chunk of Villa’s pre-season too, which would set him back a lot going into the 2023/24 season.
Speaking to Villa News, Hutton said: “It’s a massive blow.
“This is the biggest problem for me. When you’ve had such a hard, gruelling season where you play all the time, he contributes, he plays up and down the pitch, he works hard. And then after that hard season, you’ve got a championship with your country.
“I totally get it, you want to play for your country. But it’s so hard these days because you play 60 or more games a season. You’re going to break down at some point – it doesn’t matter what age you are.
“It’s a real blow. You never want to miss pre-season. If you ask any footballer, they’ll say the same thing. You hate pre-season but you don’t want to miss it because it sets you back so far.
“With new signings coming in, what happens if the team hits the ground running? It’s very difficult to get back in. It’s not ideal.”
Ramsey scored six goals and supplied seven assists in 35 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa last season.
Unai Emery mainly played the Birmingham-born ace on the left wing and he finished the season with back-to-back goals against Tottenham and Liverpool before two assists in a 2-1 win over Brighton secured qualification to European football next term.
With England’s Under-21s this summer, Ramsey had played four times, scoring one goal and assisting another at the Under-21 European Championships.
