Aston Villa boss Dean Smith explained not risking Jack Grealish for victory over Fulham yesterday.

Grealish was forced to watch from the sidelines as his teammates secured a comeback victory over Fulham at Villa Park.

He was expected to make the squad after returning to training during the international break but Smith revealed pre-match that his star man had been forced to pull out of training on Saturday.

Before the game, Smith said: "He's trained this week and was looking good, but had some discomfort yesterday, so pulled out after 10 minutes in training, so we have to err on the side of caution as we must do with these injuries."

Grealish has now missed seven consecutive games with this shin injury.