Aston Villa dealt crushing Ezri Konsa injury blow as Emi Martinez sustains issue before Burnley

Steven Gerrard has confirmed that Ezri Konsa will miss the beginning of next season. The centre-back sustained a severe knee injury during Villa’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace last weekend.

Gerrard has, however, spoken of his relief knowing Konsa hasn’t ruptured knee ligaments. The head coach said: “Ezri, it’s been confirmed that he’s got a bad knee issue so he’ll be out for anything between 12 to 16 weeks, which isn’t great news, but we’re quite relieved because we thought we were dealing with an ACL but, thankfully, it’s not that. He should return, all being well, at the back-end of August, beginning of September.”

Ahead of Burnley tomorrow, Gerrard also revealed how Emi Martinez could miss out after the Argentinian picked up an injury in training earlier this morning (Wednesday). “Emi’s a doubt at the moment,” Gerrard added. “We’re just analysing the situation that happened today in training, but I think he’ll play and he’ll be fine.

“It was just a knock in training. We’ll analyse it. I’m confident he’ll be there. If he’s not there, Robin’s champing at the bit. He’s been awesome. He’s trained well and he’s ready and I’ll have no qualms putting Robin in if I have to. If Emi’s fit and he’s fine - we’ll assess him in the next hour or two - then he’ll play.”

Lastly, Villa look set to be without Kortney Hause and Leon Bailey for the remainder of the season with two games remaining. “I don’t think [Hause and Bailey] will play again this season,” Gerrard added.

The head coach was also asked about striking the right balance in terms of team selection with Burnley on Thursday and, just three days later, the season finale up at Man City. "I’ve got to get the balance right," he said. "I think we’ve been more than fair with the