Pundit Noel Whelan has been reacting to an injury to Aston Villa midfielder Boubacar Kamara, Football Insider report.

The Lowdown: Gerrard ‘worried’

Kamara was forced off with a knee injury against Southampton last Friday, with Steven Gerrard admitting after the game that he was ‘worried’ by the problem.

There have been no further updates regarding the defensive midfielder, who was called up to the France squad on the day of his injury.

However, the 22-year-old has now been forced to withdraw from the national team, and Whelan has been giving his thoughts about the situation.

The Latest: Whelan reacts

Whelan, formerly of BBC Radio Leeds, was talking to FI regarding Kamara’s injury. He said that Gerrard has had a ‘horrible start to the season with key players getting injured’ and said that it is the ‘last thing’ the Villa boss will want.

“It is the last thing that a manager wants.

“You never want injuries to key players.

“The saving grace is that we are in an international break now so the staff have two weeks to really asset Kamara properly. They will get all of the necessary scans done and see how long it might be.

“If the worst is confirmed they have a break where they can get another midfield player up to scratch in the system that they want to play.

“It is a blow, there is no doubt about that. Any team would miss a player of that stature. It is also a very important position on the field.

“Steven Gerrard has had a horrible start to the season with key players getting injured. They got the three points on Friday though and that was really important for them.”

The Verdict: Bad to worse

Diego Carlos has been sidelined for a month with his own serious injury, and it looks as if fellow summer signing Kamara could now join him.

Left-back Lucas Digne has also suffered an ankle problem on international duty, with things going from bad to worse over the last five days on the injury front.

Hopefully, the issues with the French pair aren’t too serious and they can be back relatively soon, but it's not looking good at this moment in time.