An update has emerged regarding the fitness of Aston Villa captain John McGinn ahead of their Premier League clash against Leicester City today...

What's the talk?

Villa manager Unai Emery has confirmed that the Scotland international is in contention to feature this afternoon, alongside two of his team-mates.

Journalist Ashley Preece relayed the news from the 51-year-old's press conference on Friday, tweeting: "#avfc team news from Bodymoor Heath: Lucas Digne & John McGinn both available for tomorrow, as is new signing Jhon Duran. Bertrand Traore will return to full training next week. Diego Carlos still stepping up for his return later this month/beginning of March."

The Scotland midfielder has not played a competitive match for Aston Villa since featuring in the 2-0 win at Tottenham on New Year's Day, having been struck down with a hamstring injury.

Unleash McGinn

Emery must now use this big injury boost to unleash the Scottish dynamo from the start against the Foxes this afternoon, as McGinn could improve Villa in the middle of the park.

Last time out, Emi Buendia struggled in midfield in the 1-0 win at Southampton. The Argentine wizard recorded a rating of 6.5 as he lost nine of his 11 individual duels, completed 74% of his attempted passes and failed to make a single tackle, interception, clearance or block, whilst being dribbled past three times (as per Sofascore).

McGinn has averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.91 across 17 appearances in the Premier League this season and won an impressive 58% of his duels, which shows that he is not easily beaten in physical contests.

The £55k-per-week "warrior" - as he was once dubbed by Graeme Souness - has also completed 79% of his attempted passes and made 2.9 tackles and interceptions, whilst being dribbled past 0.8 times, per game. This indicates that he could offer defensive protection to the back four in a way that the Argentine was unable to do at St Mary's.

Creatively, McGinn has also provided twice as many 'big chances' for his team-mates (four) as Buendia (two) in the top-flight, which suggests that the Scotsman could offer more at both ends of the pitch on current form.

Also, the 28-year-old - who was once hailed as "unique" by presenter Dan Bardell - provides leadership qualities on the pitch as captain of the club, and this could be another reason why Emery may want to bring him back into the team today.

Therefore, the Villa manager could improve the team by dropping Buendia in order to name the captain in the starting XI, which is also why McGinn's return from injury is a big boost for the Spaniard.