Wolverhampton Wanderers' Leander Dendoncker arrives for the match
New Aston Villa signing Leander Dendoncker may miss Saturday’s clash with Manchester City.
The Lowdown: Dendoncker deal
Villa were active on deadline day, with Dendoncker the first player through the Bodymoor Heath door in the final hours.
NSWE forked out £13.5m for the Belgium international, who was into the final 12 months of his Wolves deal. Centre-back Jan Bednarek then joined the 27-year-old midfielder at Villa on loan from Southampton later in the day, but it looks as if the former may have to wait for his debut.
The Latest: Throat problem
Sky Sports pundit and injury analyst Ben Dinnery relayed an update from Steven Gerrard on Dendoncker.
Dinnery said on Twitter that Dendoncker ‘could’ miss the meeting with Pep Guardiola’s side after struggling with a throat issue on Friday.
Are you Gerrard in or Gerrard out?
Gerrard out
Gerrard in
The Verdict: Not ideal
Gerrard is already without Diego Carlos for the foreseeable future, so being without new man Dendoncker, hailed as ‘brilliant’ by former team-mate Max Kilman, wouldn’t be ideal.
It seems as if the club got the paperwork in on time for the player to be available, and he’d give Gerrard an option in midfield or in defence.
That could prove valuable, even from the bench, with Villa yet to keep a clean sheet so far this season. Hopefully, he’ll recover in time, but it looks as if there’s a real chance he might be missing.
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