Unai Emery explains his plan to end Aston Villa's injury hoodoo

Villa’s squad has been riddled with muscle injuries in recent months with Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans the only players to have stayed fit for the whole season.

At one point, Emery was forced to make a substitution in the first half in five consecutive matches and the manager explained how he is now listening more to his medical staff than players in deciding when workload might be putting a player at heightened risk.

Friday’s fifth round FA Cup tie with Cardiff is Villa’s fifth match in 14 days and Emery said: “In the last matches we more or less tried to avoid risk and were more demanding with the players. 

“If you ask the players they will usually tell us they are OK to play but sometimes we have to speak with the doctors, the physios, to know how they are really feeling and this is more or less the process we are doing. 

“Try to get more information from the players, the medical staff, the physios, and even when the players tell us they are OK to play, try to decide in our way without risk to the players.”

Villa bolstered their squad with five new signings in the transfer window and improving the collective mentality of the team is a major focus for the boss.

Emery has been frustrated by Villa’s inconsistency in the Premier League and said: “Football is very difficult. When we are winning of course sometimes we forget some tasks we have to do every day because sometimes when you are winning you feel invincible. 

“Sometimes then some results come which show the reality, the difficulties you have. 

“This is the mentality: understand every day and be focused on the difficulties you can face.

“There are coming now a lot of matches: tomorrow Cardiff, Brugge, Brentford. We will show again how we can react.”