Aston Villa centre-back Alpay is the latest name to be added to manger John Gregory's injury list after he damaged ankle ligaments in last weekend's Premiership clash with Leicester at Villa Park. The Turkish international joins other first-team stars, Mustapha Hadji and Hassan Kachloul on the sidelines, and will miss this week's double header in London against West Ham on Wednesday and Arsenal on Sunday.
Gregory already has one of the smallest squads in the Premiership and cannot afford to lose any more players to injury, particularly in light of his revelations last week that the club's board are unwilling to give him any more funds to increase his squad.
"The injury to Alpay looks quite bad. He has damaged ankle ligaments so we are down to about 16 players now. It's not quite as bad as Mellberg's injury but certainly I doubt if we will see him for the next two matches - at least. When you are down to around 16 players, the team suddenly starts picking itself again and the substitutes start picking themselves. That is not a particularly healthy situation. I can't afford to lose any more players," he explained.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
