An injury expert has given his view on Marvelous Nakamba’s situation and suggested a positive update on the midfielder’s injury.

The Zimbabwean picked a knee injury in Aston Villa’s defeat at Liverpool two weeks ago. The knock required surgery, and he will be on the sidelines for at least three months.

According to Ben Dinnery, who runs Premier Injuries, Nakamba’s injury often heals well and does not bring severe effects like the ACL.

“With every long-term injury, it’s difficult to give a definitive timeline,” the expert told The Football Insider, as cited by the Birmingham Mail newspaper.

“We don’t know a great deal in terms of how Nakamba will respond, how quickly he’ll heal.

“Some might have felt that it was season-ending. This is always what people jump to when it’s a ligament injury. People always seem to default to the ACL because that’s the profile one.

“But Gerrard spoke initially with a specialist and then decided they were going to treat it surgically. That 12 to 16-week estimate after he’s gone under the knife suggests that it could be the medial collateral ligament (MCL).

“That tends to heal quite well with conservative, non-surgical treatment unless it’s a grade three, which is why he may have gone under the knife.

“That 12 to 14-week estimate is bang-on in terms of the data we have collected.”