Former Gunner fractures finger but should be back vs Arsenal

Emi Martinez has fractured a finger and is also dealing with a back problem, but he should be back in action in time to face Arsenal next month.

Former Gunner Emi Martinez came off at half-time of Aston Villa’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at the weekend, after struggling with a couple of injury issues in the first half.

Gaston Edul reports that the goalkeeper has a small fracture in one of his fingers, and it could rule him out for the short term. But that wasn’t why he asked to come off against Chelsea, with the substitution reportedly because of back pain.

Physio Scout suggest a 2-4 week recovery is typical in these scenarios, though it’s hard to be more specific due to the lack of information around the fracture. At thist stage we don’t know if Martinez will need surgery, or where exactly the fracture is.

From the information available at this stage, there’s nothing to suggest Martinez will still be out of action when Villa face Arsenal on January 18th.

With six-and-a-half weeks until the game, it would have to be a serious fracture requiring surgery and a very cautious approach to his return to keep him out for that long.

In the meantime, Martinez is much more likely to miss Villa’s game against Brentford this weekend. Unai Emery’s side then face Southampton, RB Leipzig, and Nottingham Forest over the next two weeks.

If the goalkeeper is out any longer than that, he could miss Manchester City on December 21st.

Villa are on a horrible run of form at the moment, failing to win any of their last eight games and losing five of them. Despite Martinez only keeping a clean sheet in one of those eight matches, it will still be a blow to lose him after a run like that.

Dropping down to 12th in the Premier League table, Villa need to start picking up results now.