Ross Barkley’s injury is not as bad as first feared, says Dean Smith

Ross Barkley

joined

Aston Villa

on a loan spell during the summer transfer window. The midfielder has appeared in eight Premier League games this season and has managed to score a goal and provide an assist during these games. However, Barkley was sent off the pitch in the last week's match against

due to a hamstring injury.

Ahead of the team’s match against

, Dean Smith has relieved the fans by assuring them that Barkly’s injury is not as serious as was at first feared and he’s likely to miss only three games.

“Ross obviously got a hamstring injury against Brighton so he’s going to be out for two or three weeks. Nothing more than that, it’s not as bad as what we first feared,”

Smith told a press conference.

“He’s done a week already, obviously. We signed Ross because he’s a quality player and if you have quality players come out of your team it’s going to affect you a little bit.

“Plus we’ve got nobody similar to Ross in terms of how he plays. So it will be a loss.

“But we won our first two games without Ross as well, so we certainly haven’t lost sight of that. We’re not going to rush him because we don’t want to lose him again.”

Aston Villa will play against West Ham on Sunday as they aim to continue their 100 per cent away record in the

.

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