By Oluyemi Ogunseyin
Samuel Chukwueze is back for Villarreal and has returned to training after undergoing surgery on a groin injury.
Chukwueze underwent surgery for the injury on February 4 but on Wednesday, Villarreal confirmed the forward has come back.
Chukwueze makes squad for Salzburg clash
And as a matter of fact, the Super Eagles attacking sensation is in Austria for Villarreal’s Europa League Round of 32 first leg clash with Salzburg at the Red Bull Arena on Thursday.
The forward took to Instagram to share photos from his first day back in training. ‘Feels good’, the 21-year-old wrote on one of the photos. He last played for Villarreal on January 8.
Chukwueze has managed 22 games across all competitions for the Yellow Submarine so far during the 2020/21 campaign with just two goals in his record together with two other assists.
Villarreal CF English @Eng_Villarreal tweeted: “Samu is BACK! @chukwueze_8 has received the green light to return from the medical staff! We can’t wait to see you back on the pitch!”
Record shows that Villarreal CF have already faced Salzburg on four occasions with two wins for each side but manager, Unai Emery wants an away victory.
“Salzburg are an experienced team of high quality, who play very well. They’ve come down from the Champions League, where they did very well. We need to forge our own path in this competition.
“And we are going to try and strengthen our position and move closer to winning the tie. We’re excited to try and achieve great things in this competition,” said Emery.
“We have to get rid of any doubts we have and to that we need confidence to re-establish ourselves. The challenge is to forget about any past results and find our way once again.
“We need to recover our personality, our style, we need to play very well tactically and physically and be very aware of their transitions and their firepower. We’re expecting a very tough knockout game.
“And a lot is going to be demanded from us. Playing the second leg at home doesn’t change anything so we need to compete every minute and know it is a long knockout tie.
“The idea is to compete at our best every minute. They’re very dangerous and they have players who, if you lose the ball, they will push forward dangerously but we’ve analysed them a lot.
“And we know what we’ll be facing but I’ve already said they’re a very good team. “It’s true that the players you have at your disposal will be an important factor and they have two players missing in defence.
“But they have young players with a lot of potential, so we are clear that they’ll be dangerous. “They will cover the players missing well and I’m sure that they’ll continue with their playing style of always.”