McGinn highlights injuries as Villa’s Europe hopes crushed

Aston Villa captain John McGinn says his side may not have suffered European heartbreak had they been at full strength.

Villa lost in the semifinal of the Europa Conference League to Olympiacos, with a 2-0 loss in Athens on Thursday handing them a 6-2 aggregate defeat.

Injuries have hit the Villa squad hard with Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers, Alex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey, Nicolo Zaniolo, Emiliano Buendia, Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara all sidelined.

It left them short of options and McGinn says that was a factor as their hopes of reaching a first European final since 1982 crumbled.

The Scot said: “It possibly has (caught up with them). The manager drills into us that is a noexcuse environment. Listen, you want everyone available, you want your best players there.

“When you are in the trenches, (you want) someone you can turn to in order to change the game or do something different.

“We went into this competition as favourites and we handled that throughout the competition. I think it has been a big learning curve for us.”