jonathan kodjia

Aston Villa striker Jonathan Kodjia has said that he is finding joy of playing again after making a complete recovery from a serious ankle problem. The Ivory Coast international missed the vast part of the previous season with the injury and he ended the campaign with just nine league appearances, where he contributed a solitary goal.

However, he has made a fluent start for the new season with three goals already scored from just six matches and speaking to CAF’s official website, he revealed his pleasure of playing regularly once more, he said: “I gradually regained form after a very difficult period last season. A serious injury forced me to rest for several months. Today, I find the joy of playing again. As proof, I've scored three goals since the beginning of the Championship. In any case, I want to make up for lost time, both for my club and national team.”

Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has revealed that Jonathan Kodjia could be restricted to a bench role having only recently recovered from an injury. The Ivorian is arguably the Villain’s biggest goal threat, but Bruce is not taking the risk of throwing him straight into the line-up with the club’s automatic promotion hopes more or less over.

He said: “We’re playing catch-up with him. So it’s a case of, can he give us a spark off the bench? It was a lot to ask at the weekend. You can see that he’s short at the moment and why wouldn’t he be? He’s had a re-operation after the original one in the summer (on his ankle) so we’ll go easy with him that’s for sure. Kodjia wants to play, that’s just him, but he’s going to need some time.”