Ross Barkley in line for Aston Villa return against Crystal Palace

Midfielder was injured in his side’s defeat by Brighton last month

(Getty Images)

Ross Barkley is in line to return for Aston Villa when they take on Crystal Palace on Boxing Day, his coach Dean Smith has revealed.

Barkley, on loan from Chelsea, was substituted early in his side’s 2-1 home defeat by Brighton in November and has missed a month of action as a result.

But the England midfielder is set to return on Saturday when Villa come up against Palace.

“We’re expecting Ross Barkley to start training [on Wednesday], which is good news for us,” Smith said.

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“Trezeguet will still be missing. Ezri [Konsa] is back in training [from Wednesday], but other than that we’re as we were with the same squad that was available for West Brom.”

Konsa has been sidelined by illness while Trezeguet is out with a thigh injury.

Villa’s 3-0 derby win at West Brom on Sunday evening lifted them to within three points of the top five, with two games in hand.

For a team that beat the drop only on the final day of last season, Villa’s progress has delighted Smith.

“It’s been a weird year for everybody,” he said. “Nobody’s been through a pandemic like this before, so there’s been a lot of new things that have happened.

“Maintaining our status as a Premier League club was very important to us. The work that we put in after the March period was really important to that.

“We’ve added to that squad with five quality players [Barkley, Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Martinez, Matty Cash and Bertrand Traore] and we feel like we’re in a really good place to compete in every game that we play.

“The turnaround in confidence at the football club has been really good to see. Long may that continue.”

PA