Emery eases fears over Villa's defensive crisis

Unai Emery has backed Aston Villa to cope with their defensive crisis before their crunch Champions League game with Celtic.

Ezri Konsa is Villa's only fit centre-back with Pau Torres out with a broken foot and Tyrone Mings a major injury doubt to face Celtic at Villa Park Wednesday.

Diego Carlos was also sold to Fenerbahce last week to deplete Villa's options further.

Mings came off in tears in Sunday's 1-1 draw with West Ham but Emery hopes he has an outside chance of facing the Scottish champions.

"If Tyrone Mings is available he will play. We have injured players but this is something everyone has," said Emery.

"We had Diego Carlos, he wanted to leave and he was pushing us to let him leave. Even we wanted to replace him but we couldn't do both at the same time.

"We had to accept it because the circumstances come like that. We have to work, prepare, believe and be ready. I believe we have the players we have in the squad."

Left-back Lucas Digne played as centre-back for over 50 minutes in the draw with the Hammers after replacing Mings.

Emery added: "Of course we are playing on Sunday, tomorrow, on Saturday. We have players injured but it's a new objective for players getting less minutes. I want to get into the top eight because it's a good opportunity."