Marvelous Nakamba and his Aston Villa teammates started the pre-season campaign this week.

Nakamba returned to England last week after spending his end-of-the-season break in Zimbabwe. During this time, he oversaw the launch of his Marvelous Nakamba Foundation in Harare and was present at a youth invitational tournament that happened in Bulawayo.

The Warriors midfielder joined the rest of the team at the Bodymoor Heath training center on Monday and underwent tests.

The squad went out on the grass for the first pitch session on the following day. The players were put through their paces by head coach Steven Gerrard.

Villa will play their first friendly of the pre-season on Saturday against English League Two side Walsall FC.

The Birmingham-based outfit will also face EPL rivals Manchester United on 23 June before rounding up the preparations with a match against French club Rennes seven days later.

Aston Villa will then begin their 2022/23 campaign with a match against Bournemouth on August 6.

The clash will see Nakamba facing his Warriors teammate Jordan Zemura in what could be a historic encounter.

If both players are in action, this would be the second time in the EPL era that two fully-capped Zimbabwean players are on opposite sides.

The other time this happened was in the mid-90s when Peter Ndlovu was at Coventry City while Bruce Grobbelaar had settled at Southampton.

Pic Credit: Aston Villa