Aston Villa manager Unai Emery says Boubacar Kamara is scheduled to return to first-team training in “a few weeks”.
Kamara, who has been injured since February after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, has made good progress on his injury and is ahead of expectations, having set an October return date initially.
The 24-year-old returned to the grass a couple of weeks ago to carry out individual running work.
The central midfielder has been key to Emery’s plans at Villa Park and prior to his ACL, had been involved in Didier Deschamps’ France setup.
“Kamara is progressing a lot,” said Emery, who was speaking ahead of Villa’s first home fixture against Arsenal on Saturday.
“I think it has been six months since he was injured and had surgery and more or less in a few weeks he will start training with us.”
Elsewhere, Emery has confirmed the other long-term absentee, Tyrone Mings, is also close to reintegrating into the first-team environment, having been unavailable since the first day of last season with an ACL injury.
“He is doing something with the team,” said Emery. “He is working with the team but he is feeling very good.”
Villa continue the new Premier League campaign against Emery’s former club Arsenal on Saturday, having beaten West Ham United on opening weekend.
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The Boubacar Kamara story – from made for Marseille to Aston Villa’s jewel
(Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
