Aston Villa will have Fredric Guilbert, Danny Drinkwater and Henri Lansbury available for selection for Wolves on Saturday.
The trio have been managing injuries since Project Restart began but are fit and ready to be involved in Dean Smith’s expanded 20-man squad.
“Guilbert’s available for Saturday,” Smith explained. “I decided not to take him, Drinkwater and Lansbury. They are pushing for the squad, but needed to stay at Bodymoor to do some extra work and get up to speed thanks to the injuries they’ve had.”
Villa will prepare for Wolves with a training session later this morning. Smith, meanwhile, confirmed he’ll have no qualms starting John McGinn once again on Saturday. The Scot played his third game in seven days after his six-month lay-off at Newcastle and looks set to play from the start once more at Villa Park tomorrow.
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“He’s getting there that’s for sure,” Smith said of McGinn. “It’s amiss from me to expect him to be at the levels he was. It’s a bit like Harry Kane at Tottenham. Six months out of the game is a long time.
“They have to get that match sharpness and that’s what John is working hard to do. He’s put in some half-decent performances, but we all know the levels he was at before. It’s hard to judge that to where he is now as he’s had six months out. We’ve got no time to do otherwise.
“What I can manage is whether he’s playing too much and manage that time. He’ll be the first one to tell us if he’s unfit. The good news is that the break – or the injury – he had before, he doesn’t feel it at all now.
“It’s just about expanding that lung capacity and working the legs at the moment, getting that touch and feel back.”
Reflecting on the 1-1 draw at St James’ Park, Smith added: “We watched it back on the debrief, I thought we were very good in the first half and created chances we had to be more clinical with.
“Second half, Newcastle started off better. Again, they were restricted to shots outside the box, but we give a sloppy goal away. We showed a lot of heart, character, commitment, whatever you want to call it, at the end, to get the equaliser pushing to get a winner.
“Newcastle, Sheffield United, Chelsea have been good performances from us and we deserve more than one point each from two of those games, and I keep pushing to try and get that momentum.”
Elsewhere on Villa’s injury front, Bjorn Engels remains sidelined with an Achilles knock. Tom Heaton and Wesley are currently working on their respective knee ligament rehabilitation ahead of a return to action next season.
