Nakamba to step up return

Marvelous Nakamba is set to step-up his recovery from a knee injury which had ruled him out of action for over three months.

The Aston Villa midfielder has missed 13 games after suffering a serious knee injury at Anfield, during Villa's 1-0 defeat to Liverpool.

After being named as Villa's Player of the Month for November, the 26-cap Zimbabwe international was forced to undergo surgery and was ruled out of action for up to four months.

Nakamba underwent surgery to fix the issues and was expected to be out for between 12 to 16 weeks.

The Zimbabwe international had been in excellent form for Villa before picking up the injury, as he was voted the club's player of the month for November.

Having played five games under Steven Gerrard since the former Rangers boss left the Scottish champions for Villa, Nakamba cemented himself in the starting XI and was arguably the most consistent performer under the new head coach.

Nakamba is now closing in on a return after his 13th week of recovery.

The 28-year-old has returned to training much sooner than expected.

The midfielder has pencilled in a return for Villa's trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, April 2.

Villa's game against Arsenal this coming weekend will come too soon for the 28-year-old, but following an international break the week after that, he could make his long-awaited return to action for the start of next month.

Before Villa's game against Southampton nine days ago, Gerrard revealed: "Nakamba is going to be another three to four weeks, hopefully it will be three."

Nakamba's return will come as a welcome boost for Gerrard as Villa look to end the campaign positively.

The Villa boss was impressed with the midfielder's contributions earlier this season. Back in December, he said: "He's (Nakamba) been fantastic, he's trained extremely well.

"He's been really open, his performances have been outstanding. We were aware of Marvelous before we came in, but he's somebody who has really stood up and jumped out, he's basically said, ‘I'm here, I want to contribute, I want to be available'.

"He's still young, he can get better. He's around the right people for that to happen, he's in the right environment for that.

"We're really pleased to have him."

Villa have won four, drawn two and lost six of their 12 fixtures in all competitions since Nakamba picked up his knee problem. And the Zimbabwean's underlying numbers indicate that his absence could have been a sizeable factor in their indifferent form.

As per FBref, Nakamba has ranked in the 93rd percentile for blocks, 85th for pressures and 82nd for tackles amongst players in his position over the last year.