Gerrard confirms fresh Nakamba injury a few weeks before AFCON

Aston Villa gaffer Steven Gerrard has confirmed the injury of his team’s regular starter and Warriors’ midfield maestro Marvelous Nakamba (27).

The gaffer revealed the 27-year-old Zimbabwean midfielder’s injury during a pre-match press conference held on Monday ahead of Villa’s match against Norwich City.

Villa beat Norwich City 2-0 at Carrow Road on Tuesday evening in their mid-week league fixture. 

The Birmingham City side faced their former manager Dean Smith who is now in charge of Norwich after he was fired by Villa a couple of weeks ago, only to be replaced by Gerrard.

Speaking to the media, Gerrard said the soft spoken Warriors central midfielder was sent for a scan to examine the extent of his injury.

“We sent him (Nakamba) for an MRI scan and the news that has come back is not good news.

“The idea is to send him to a specialist on Tuesday and we’ll then know more about the damage and what we’ll need to do going forward,” said Gerrard.

Nakamba who at the moment has started five EPL matches under the tutelage of the former England midfielder was substituted over the weekend when Villa suffered a narrow 1-0 victory to second placed Liverpool.

He was substituted in Saturday’s loss against the Reds after he reportedly sustained a groin injury.

However, other reports point out that the former Bantu Rovers player might have suffered a knee injury.

According to reports from the United Kingdom media publications, Gerrard revealed that the injury might be worse than expected.

Nakamba’s injury comes as a huge blow to the Warriors who have reportedly begun on working hard to try and speed up the preparations for the upcoming AFCON competition slated for Cameroon in January 2022.

The Warriors’ alleged 40-men squad list is expected to troop into camp on 23 December to kickstart their training.

Meanwhile, this comes at a time when last week Villa pleaded with Zifa and were granted the permission to keep the inform Nakamba over the busiest EPL games set to take place during the festive season.

As per reports, the two parties (Zifa and Villa) agreed that the Hwange born midfielder is set to join the rest of the squad in Cameroon in January.

The agreement approved that the player will directly fly to Cameroon to join the rest of the selected AFCON squad a few days before Zimbabwe plays Senegal in their tournament’s opening match on 10 January. Nehanda Radio