VILLA ARE BANKING ON HAPPY GREALISH RETURN
ASTON Villa boss Dean Smith has backed Jack Grealish to make the difference in the race for the Premier League.
The midfielder has been out for almost two months with a shin injury, but is due to start running on grass next week.
Without him, Villa had won just once in eight games to slip seven points off the Championship’s top six going into yesterday’s clash with Ipswich Town.
Smith is eager to have his star man back, and said: “He is one of the best in the division.
“He can certainly make a difference, we have seen that already.
“Any team in this league which lost a player of Jack’s calibre would struggle, that’s just a case when you have the best players in the league.
“The one thing we had for the first nine games was continuity.
“What we’ve lost is that continuity because of injuries, which has cost us.
“He carries the ball from defence further up the pitch and gets an awful lot of fouls and gives us a chance to take advantage from set-pieces.”
Grealish has made 22 appearances this season, scoring twice, and Villa were just two points behind the play-offs when he got injured.
But despite Villa falling to 13th, the 23-yearold will be eased back having been out since suffering the problem against West Brom in early December.
“He’s got to take the load into his leg first to make sure he’s pain free. If we can do that we can accelerate his recovery,” said Smith.
“It’ll be great to have him and Axel Tuanzebe back, but they have been longer-term injuries than we thought.
“He will judge his recovery. At the moment, he’s pain free, and he goes on to the grass next week, how he tolerates that load we’ll see.”