Aston Villa star Leon Bailey explains why he took five months to score first of the season
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Leon Bailey didn’t expect his first goal of this season to arrive in 2025. But, he argues, there are mitigating circumstances as to why it has taken him five months to get off the mark. The Jamaica international was one of the stand-out performers as Villa cemented a Champions League spot last term. It’s not really happened for him this season.
“I am now feeling great,” he said, “I did have a groin injury and two hamstring problems. It is common knowledge when a player is stop-start, stop-start with injuries, coming back, your confidence level is hit. It is normal. No player is coming back from injury with their confidence levels over the moon. It is going to take them time.
“Look at Jacob Ramsey. He is coming back, now he needs to start finding himself, get some minutes and start building up his confidence. It is like that for every player. “Me, I am a sprinter, a person who makes a lot of runs. And these things happen. We do a lot of work behind the scenes but even while working, you can still be unfortunate. And I have just been unfortunate in the first half of the season. Hopefully we can change that in the second half of the season.
“It happens to the best of the best. It is football, you just have to accept it, work harder, come back and continue.”. Bailey highlighted the problems he faced, the inference being that he has been playing to help the team, rather than help himself.He added: “I will try to play through and help the team as much as possible. If the coach needs me to be there I will try to be as ready as possible.
