Aston Villa forward Cameron Archer will ‘be back’ amongst the squad for this afternoon’s trip to Leeds United, Ashley Preece reports.

The Lowdown: Archer’s absence

Archer was hailed as “fantastic” by Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe during his loan spell last season and remained at Villa Park over the summer.

He has been included in six of Villa’s seven Premier League matchday squads, missing the 1-0 win over Southampton with an adductor issue.

The 20-year-old is one of three centre-forwards available to Steven Gerrard, and it looks as if he could return to the squad this afternoon.

The Latest: Preece’s update

Preece took to Twitter on Friday lunchtime to relay ‘team news’ from Gerrard’s pre-match press conference.

He stated that Boubacar Kamara, Lucas Digne and Matty Cash will all be missing today, but offered the welcome news that Archer ‘will be back amongst the squad’.

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The Verdict: Timely boost

Villa have struggled for goals this season, netting just six times in their opening seven games.

As mentioned, they are short of central attacking options and have plenty of other injury issues to worry about, so having Archer to call upon can only be viewed as good news for Gerrard prior to the trip to Yorkshire.

You’d expect that the 20-year-old could feature from the bench at Elland Road, with Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings potentially starting together, with Archer looking to net what would be his fifth Villa goal in just 10 games.