Aston Villa have been handed an early injury boost ahead of their Premier League meeting with Nottingham Forest next Monday.

What's the latest?

In a recent post on Twitter, injury analyst Ben Dinnery relayed recent comments made by Steven Gerrard, who revealed that Calum Chambers should be available for the trip to The City Ground next week, despite the centre-back having missed the 0-0 draw with Leeds United on Sunday due to having a procedure on his appendix.

In his post, Dinnery said: "Chambers 'should' be available for the trip to Forest after missing the 0-0 draw at Leeds. 'He's had something in his appendix [and needed] to have a small procedure. He's in a little pain, but we're [not] playing [until next] Monday - it should help and get him available'."

Good news for Gerrard

While it is true that Chambers has not exactly been a first-team regular for Villa so far this season - featuring in just two Premier League fixtures this term - the fact that the defender should be available for the trip to Nottingham on Monday is undoubtedly a boost for Gerrard and his side.

Indeed, after his move to Villa Park in January of this year, the £9m-rated talent highly impressed for the Villans, helping his side keep three clean sheets and scoring one goal, as well as making an average of 1.6 tackles, 0.4 interceptions, 3.8 clearances and winning 4.0 duels - at a success rate of 53% - per game.

Those individual numbers are highly impressive when compared to his teammates with the form Arsenal man winning more tackles per game than any other central defender at the club, while only Tyrone Mings made a higher volume of clearances on average.

These returns saw the £27k-per-week centre-back average a SofaScore match rating of 6.90, ranking him as Gerrard's seventh-best performer in the top flight of English football last time out.

Furthermore, according to FBref, the 27-year-old ranks in the top 4% of centre-backs in Europe's big five leagues and European competitions for blocks per 90, in addition to the top 6% for clearances, the top 18% for tackles, the top 27% for pressures and the top 31% for aerial duels won over the last 365 days - proving his efficiency at the back.

As such, should Chambers indeed be available for selection against Forest, it is clear to see that the defender would make a very welcome addition to Gerrard's options at the back - with the 42-year-old manager undoubtedly hoping for a positive result to help kickstart his side's 2022/23 Premier League campaign.