John McGinn makes 'nothing to prove' Ollie Watkins comment - as Villa skipper react to injury return in Lille victory
John McGinn insists that following medical advice to the 'absolute letter' allowed him to make his Villa return against Lille on Thursday evening.
The influential Villa skipper returned to the fold in France, coming on as a late substitute in the 1-0 victory as his side take a slender advantage back to Villa Park for the second leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.
McGinn has been out since mid January, having sustained a knee injury in the defeat against Everton.
It has been a big blow for Villa with recent form seeing them slip out of contention for the title.
McGinn underwent surgery on his injury and returned on schedule to feature late on in France on Thursday.
And he is now targeting more minutes ahead of Sunday's clash with Manchester United.
He said: "It was great.
“The surgeon said aim for six to eight weeks. Credit to the physios, the doctors here, I followed it to their absolute letter and they did.
“I felt really good out there tonight, and hopefully I do again for Sunday.”
It was Ollie Watkins' strike that proved to be the difference in France - as Villa are now eyeing a quarter final spot as they head back home with a small advantage.
McGinn explained that it would have been easy to go 'gung ho' from the off on Thursday - but keeping it simple proved be the right course of action.
He also touched on Watkins - who was back among the goals having gone seven games without scoring. The Scottish midfielder stated the England striker had 'nothing to prove' to his team mates.
He told the Villa website: "We knew after coming here last time, it was a tough place, good atmosphere. They were a good team, a lot of experience, so we had to ride the storm a little bit, but we had chances second half, and it’s good to take the lead back to Villa Park.
“On paper, we probably went into the tie tonight slight favourites, so it’s easy to go gung-ho, try and get an early goal, but we’ve got experience, we needed to soak it up, play simple, play our game and the chances will come second half.
“It was a great header from Ollie, and we’ll take the 1-0.
“Ollie’s a goalscorer – he’s got nothing to prove to us. Always works his socks off.
“He’s in the positions. He’s getting there, and hopefully it’ll start to flow for him.”
