Aside from two defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool, Steven Gerrard's reign in charge of Aston Villa has been relatively positive with four wins under his belt against Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Leicester City and Norwich City.

However, there has been one bit of bad news that Gerrard has had to deal with in recent weeks with midfielder Marvelous Nakamba picking up a serious knee injury earlier this month.

With the Villa man having had surgery to fix the issue, Gerrard has shared some details on Nakamba's recovery and when he could be back available for the team.

What's the latest?

In a recent press conference (via Birmingham Live), Gerrard said that Nakamba is "going to be missing for somewhere in the region of 12 weeks if it is a fantastic rehab or it could be up to 16 weeks."

Taking this into account, it's safe to say that Villa will have to deal with Nakamba's absence for a significant period of time regardless of how well his recovery goes, which will be gutting for the Villa fans to hear.

Since arriving at Villa Park back in the 2019 summer transfer window from Belgian side Club Brugge, the 27-year-old, who is currently valued at £6.3m according to Transfermarkt, has made a total of 64 appearances for Villa across all competitions but has yet to score a goal or provide an assist.

With Gerrard labelling Nakamba's early performances under Villa's new manager as "outstanding," and the fact that the Zimbabwe international has managed to rack up an average of two tackles per game in the Premier League this season with 50% of his duels won, it goes without saying that he will be a big miss for the Villans in their midfield.

Given the amount of time that Nakamba could be spending out on the sidelines, it will be interesting to see whether or not this forces the Midlands club to splash the cash in the upcoming January transfer window to bring in a new midfielder to fill in for Nakamba while he's out.

Moving forward, if Villa don't sign a new midfielder in January to fill in for Nakamba, Gerrard and everyone else at the club will have to hope that the likes of John McGinn and Douglas Luiz don't pick up any injuries as Villa's other two senior midfielders and that Nakamba's recovery will be a swift one.

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