Aston Villa coach Dean Smith has explained why Zimbabwean midfielder Marvelous Nakamba hasn’t featured in the team yet.

The 25-year old arrived at the EPL side early this month, a week before the start of the 2019/20 season, and has missed the two opening games.

According to the Birmingham Mail newspaper, Smith revealed Nakamba is still working on his fitness after a disrupted pre-season.

“He’s done extra work in training on Saturday, and he’s still a little bit off it,” said the coach.

“He played one game in the Africa Cup of Nations and got injured and hasn’t done an awful lot of training afterwards so when he came to us we’ve been working on his fitness.”