Unai Emery’s side travel to Northern France to face Lille at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday evening.
Villa are competing in the Europa League knockout rounds this term after finishing level on points with Lille’s Ligue 1 rival Lyon in the group stage.
Three Aston Villa players are walking a disciplinary tightrope ahead of the game as Matty Cash, Victor Lindelof, and John McGinn each collected three bookings during the league phase.
As players aim to avoid being suspended, Emery will be missing Boubacar Kamara (knee), Youri Tielemans (ankle), Andres Garcia (thigh) and Cash (calf) as they aim to book their place in the Quarter Final whilst also rotating ahead of this weekend’s clash with Manchester United.
The good news for Villa is that captain John McGinn has returned from injury after being absent for seven weeks since a knee injury in a Premier League loss to Everton in January.
Villa are on a four-game winless run in the Premier League and European competition comes at a great time for Emery’s side whose top 4 hopes are crumbling in the final stage of the season.
Lille, meanwhile, are without Marc-Aurele Caillard (elbow), Osame Sahraoui (groin), Hamza Igamane (ACL), Ethan Mbappe Lottin (thigh), Ousmane Toure (knee) are all missing as manager Bruno Génésio looks for solutions to so many players being absent.