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Unai Emery has issued an update on the state of his Aston Villa squad as they prepare to host Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon.

Watkins only managed the first half for Villa when they visited Wolves a couple of weeks ago before going off with a groin injury.

That kept the England international, ranked at no.10 in FourFourTwo's list of the best strikers in the world right now, subsequently missed Villa's 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round win over Tottenham last weekend.

Ollie Watkins injury latest ahead of Aston Villa v Ipswich Town

Unai Emery was not short of attacking options despite Watkins' absence last weekend, starting new signing Donyell Malen up front supported by Leon Bailey, Jacob Ramsey and Morgan Rogers.

Fellow January transfer window arrivals Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio then came off the bench in the second half of that game.

However, Watkins will be back in contention for a place against Ipswich Town, as Emery confirmed at his pre-match press conference on Friday.

Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Ezra Konsa, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley all remain sidelined, but Emery revealed: "[Tyrone] Mings and Ollie Watkins have trained this morning with the group and they are in the squad."

Emery's side have had streaky spells this season, with their 2-0 loss away to Wolves just the latest setback for a side sitting 8th in the Premier League table.

But Villa go into their clash with struggling Ipswich in good form at Villa Park after going unbeaten in their past 11 home games in all competitions.

Villa have beaten Spurs in the FA Cup and Celtic in the Champions League in their past two home outings and will now be hoping to make it three in a row as they return to Premier League action against the Tractor Boys.

Ipswich are second from bottom and three points adrift from safety going into this weekend's fixtures.