The latest on Jack Grealish injury & possible return date

Aston Villa have been without star midfielder Jack Grealish for their last seven Premier League games after he picked up a shin injury in training back in February.

Dean Smith's side have managed just two victories without their talisman - a 1-0 triumph over Leeds United and the 3-1 comeback win over Fulham at Villa Park.

And unfortunately for Villa fans, looks set to be out for another 'few weeks' despite previous optimism regarding the timeline for his return. In a press conference ahead of Villa's meeting with Liverpool, Dean Smith stated: "Myself and Jack were quite optimistic to get him back a bit sooner than he probably should and he's had a setback that will probably put him back a couple of weeks.

"He was really good in training, but he couldn't tolerate the loading. It's a loading injury and we have to de-load him over the next few weeks and get him back from there.

"We know it's not a long-term injury and he will be back. We all, Jack included, probably pushed him back a little bit too quickly. We wanted him to get back and he had a little setback."

Smith had previously confessed that Grealish had looked excellent in training, adding to the excitement surrounding his eventual return.

“He’s joined in and his first session, I must admit, he was very, very good,” Smith told Villa TV. “It was mouth-watering to see what we’ve been missing a little bit, you sometimes forget how good he actually is until he comes back into training. He’s been excellent, as you can imagine.

“He’s missed it, it’s been a frustrating one because there’s nothing visual you can see with the injury he’s had, it was just a shin injury, but we had to wait until he could persevere with the pain he was under.”

It looks as though Grealish will be ruled out of two huge games for Villa in the coming weeks. A trip to Anfield on April 10 is next up, followed by a home game against Manchester City 11 days later.

A more feasible return, if Grealish's follow-up scan does show a further problem, could be against West Brom on April 25.

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