Kalinic available for Villa debut following Gent switch

Posted Saturday, January 05, 2019 by PA

Goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic could make his Aston Villa debut in the FA Cup third-round clash with Swansea after completing his move from Gent on New Year’s Day.

Axel Tuanzebe (foot) and Jack Grealish (shin) remain sidelined, while Orjan Nyland (Achilles) is out for the rest of the season and on-loan striker Tammy Abraham is ineligible.

Neil Taylor and Henri Lansbury could return for the Villans, with Dean Smith likely to rest Conor Hourihane and John McGinn.

Tommy Elphick will be hoping to keep his place after he completed 90 minutes against QPR following his recall from Hull City.

Swansea’s preparations for the tie have been disrupted by a bout of sickness in the camp.

Jefferson Montero, Wilfried Bony and Oli McBurnie were unable to train on Thursday due to the bug and the trio will be assessed over the next 24 hours to see if they can be involved.

The rest of the squad is available, however, apart from the injured Martin Olsson and Tom Carroll.

Swans boss Graham Potter plans to assess how his players have recovered following four matches in 11 days but he did hint at some changes to the team.