Unai Emery confident Aston Villa can cope without injured star in Europa League semi-final

Unai Emery is confident Villa have the options to make up for the loss of midfielder Amadou Onana to injury for Thursday’s Europa League showdown with Nottingham Forest.

The Belgium international has been ruled out of the semi-final second leg with the calf problem sustained during last week’s first match at the City Ground.

Emery has been boosted by the return of skipper John McGinn to training, after the skipper missed Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham with a tight hamstring.

But the absence of record £50million signing Onana leaves the Villa manager with a headache going into one of the club’s biggest matches for decades.

Youngster Lamare Bogarde has struggled while deputising for the 24-year-old in the past two Premier League matches, meaning Emery could turn to Douglas Luiz or even play McGinn in a deeper role.

“I’m confident,” said Emery. “Of course, when we have every player available I can have more options.

“In case we didn’t have (Boubacar) Kamara we were working with other players and performing.

“At other times of the season we had Amadou Onana injured and were performing.

“We had sometimes out Youri Tielemans and even John McGinn. We got overall our performance.

“Tomorrow I am confident with the players we have available. In midfield we can play with different choices. I am confident.”

Emery claims to have prepared for every eventuality, with Villa having practiced penalties in case the tie goes to a shoot-out.

The Spaniard, a four-time Europa League winner, has won his last five semi-finals in the competition, with a defeat to Atletico Madrid when managing Valencia the only time he has lost a knockout tie.

Thursday is his third attempt to reach a final with Villa, after losing in the Conference League and FA Cup semi-finals in each of the last two seasons.

The club are also seeking to end a 30-year trophy drought but Emery says not winning silverware would not represent failure.

“It’s not a defeat, in case we are not achieving one trophy,” he said. “The objective always is keep going and keep going, improving, keep going, having opportunities in the future.

“We have now the opportunity, but only one team is winning, and when I was speaking before the match, the first leg, we have 25%, the possibility to get a trophy – now, maybe less, because we started losing.

“And we have 50% possibility, or maybe less, to play the final. This is football, and you must respect.

“You must respect every competition, and you must respect Europe, and you must respect each team.”