Aston Villa striker named in starting XI vs West Ham

Ollie Watkins has recovered from a cut to his knee to be named in Aston Villa’s starting XI for Sunday’s Premier League clash with West Ham.

The in-form England striker limped off during the Villans’ 4-0 Europa Conference League victory over Ajax on Thursday night as they booked a quarter-final clash with Lille.

The injury to Watkins had Fantasy Premier League managers sweating over whether to include him in their teams, but Unai Emery has deemed the 28-year-old to be fit enough to feature at London Stadium.

After the clash with Ajax, the Spanish manager said: “He could be available for Sunday, but it is only a cut. We will wait and see tomorrow and Saturday.

“We are speaking before each match about how important Ollie Watkins is.”

Watkins, who scored and assisted in the 4-1 victory over West Ham back in October, is joined in the Villa attack by Jhon Duran, while there are starts elsewhere for Leon Bailey and Morgan Rogers.

The former Brentford striker will be looking to add to his tallies of 16 goals and ten assists in 28 Premier League appearances so far this season, with no other player in the competition managing more goal contributions in 2023/24.

Right-back Matty Cash was named on the bench, with Ezri Konsa expected to fill in for the Poland international.

Emery is without suspended midfielder John McGinn after his red card in the 4-0 defeat to Tottenham last week and is also missing Boubacar Kamara, Emiliano Buendia, Jacob Ramsey, Kortney Hause and Tyrone Mings to injury.

Hosts West Ham are only missing winger Maxwel Cornet, with Irons boss David Moyes naming an attack of Michail Antonio, Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus.

The Hammers are in strong form themselves, overturning a first-leg deficit against Freiburg to reach the Europa League quarter-finals last time out.