Aston Villa wait on Amadou Onana fitness before Forest Europa League semi-final | OneFootball

Aston Villa are monitoring Amadou Onana’s knee ahead of Thursday’s Europa League semi-final first leg at Nottingham Forest.

According to Nottingham Post, the Premier League rivals meet at the City Ground at 8pm, with the return at Villa Park next week and a place in next month’s final in Istanbul at stake.

Onana missed the 1-0 defeat at Fulham on Saturday with a minor knee issue after feeling a small pain before the trip to London. The 24-year-old now faces a late fitness check. Before the weekend he had started nine consecutive league matches and nine of Villa’s last 10 in Europe.

Unai Emery said Villa would train on Wednesday afternoon, then assess whether Onana feels ready to play. He noted some players carry small pains and that Onana was tested on Tuesday and would be tested again. He added they would select only those fully ready, with others stepping in if required.

Villa cannot use Ross Barkley and Alysson as they were not registered for the knockout rounds. Boubacar Kamara remains a long-term absentee after a knee injury in January.

Forest have issues too, with centre-back Murillo ruled out this week by a suspected hamstring problem. Jair Cunha trained this morning after going off during Friday’s 5-0 win over Sunderland. Ibrahim Sangare and Dan Ndoye did not train with the group and were doing individual work indoors.

Source: Nottingham Post