Swansea City will be hoping to welcome back the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jefferson Montero and Leon Britton when Aston Villa visit on Boxing Day
Swansea City will be hoping to welcome back the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson (foot), Jefferson Montero (hamstring) and Leon Britton (knee) when Aston Villa visit on Boxing Day.
The trio didn’t travel for Saturday’s 1-0 win at Hull City with injury problems but they were not thought to be anything serious.
Swans boss Garry Monk made 7 changes to the team that lost 2-1 at home against Spurs the previous weekend. Federico Fernandez was a welcome boost – returning to the defence following injury while the likes of Wilfried Bony and Angel Rangel were also rested on the bench.
Monk said all three injured players who stayed at home for the Hull game just had ‘niggles’ and with a busy schedule coming up, the Swansea manager thought it was safer to leave them out of the game.
The changes paid off as his side kept a clean sheet and claimed a valuable three points – only their second away win since the opening day victory at Old Trafford.
‘They just had niggles,’
‘Gylfi had a niggle going into the Spurs game.
‘Leon and Jeff had little niggles at the start of the week and it is one of those situations where if I pushed them, they could have played.
‘But I always believe if a player has any slight doubt in his mind going into a game, you are better off going with someone who is 100 per cent able to commit to what you are asking them to do.
‘That was the reason behind those decisions and thankfully they paid off.’
Monk added that it would be ‘suicide’ to name the same 11 players over the festive period:
‘I knew people would question the changes, but I have confidence in the group,’
‘We haven’t got the biggest squad, but we have quality and everyone knows their role.
‘We have got to a busy period coming up and to play the same 11 players in every game is suicide for me.’
