“A bit peculiar” – Watford fan pundit reacts to significant decision involving Aston Villa player | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Watford defender Kortney Hause has been left out of the club’s squad for the remainder of the season.

Hause joined the Hornets on loan from Premier League side Aston Villa in the summer but he has suffered an incredibly injury-disrupted time at Vicarage Road.

The 27-year-old has made just three appearances for the club, with the last of those coming all the way back in September, while he has not been included in a matchday squad since the end of October.

According to the Watford Observer, there is no break clause in his loan agreement, meaning the Hornets are unable to terminate his deal, but he will play no further part for Slaven Bilic’s side in their promotion push after his omission from the squad list.

FLW’s Watford fan pundit Justin Beattie says it Hause’s situation is a strange one, but backed the club’s decision to leave him out.

“The Kortney Hause situation is a bit peculiar,” Justin said.

“As I understand it, both Watford and his parent club Aston Villa consider him fit to play, however it looks as though he thinks he needs an operation, so there’s a bit of a stand off.

“He’s been posting stuff on his personal social media on his Instagram about being a prisoner, which is all a bit peculiar.

“I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of him, but the decision to leave him out of the squad is the right one because he simply doesn’t want to play football and we can’t have players that don’t want to play football in our squad.”

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The verdict

Hause has not been a successful signing for Watford.

He looked like a shrewd addition for the Hornets in the summer after some decent displays for Villa in the top flight in recent years and would surely have been a reliable performer if he had stayed fit.

But Hause is far from the only Watford player to have struggled with injury this season and if there is little prospect of him being able or willing to play, it makes sense to leave him out.

With the arrivals of Ryan Porteous and Wesley Hoedt last month, Bilic has significantly strengthened his defence and should be well-covered at centre-half in Hause’s absence.