Villa will likely be without Delph for rest of the year

Last night we brought you the news that Fabian Delph had injured his shoulder in a freak accident at Bodymoor Heath. The one thing we didn't know, at the time, was how bad the injury was. Turns out: it's pretty bad. The Telegraph is reporting that Delph will need surgery on his shoulder and will be out for at least two months. By the time he gets back to match fitness, that probably means that he won't be back in the claret and blue until 2015.

This likely means that we should all get used to regularly seeing Carlos Sanchez join the midfield along with Ashley Westwood and Tom Cleverley. Sanchez is a player with oodles of potential, but he's looked out of his depth in his few appearances this season, so while it's not a terrible solution in the long-run, it doesn't inspire much confidence now.

And then there's the lingering fear that Delph will take longer than the two months allotted for his recovery. For every time Aston Villa have seen a Christian Benteke recover faster than was expected, it seems as if they have multiple examples (Ron Vlaar, Jores Okore, and Libor Kozak being the latest) of players taking much longer.

I'd say that the good news is that Villa's injury luck eventually has to change, but the past four-and-a-half seasons have taught us otherwise.