Liverpool loanee nonetheless hasn’t debuted for brand spanking new membership with “niggle after niggle”
Liverpool loanee Rhys Williams has not performed for Aberdeen since a 45-minute outing in pre-season, with “niggle after niggle” holding him out.
When Williams joined Aberdeen on the finish of June, the centre-back’s intention was to emulate long-time team-mate Leighton Clarkson and luxuriate in a breakthrough marketing campaign.
However whereas Clarkson has taken up a key position once more following his everlasting swap to Pittrodie over the summer season, it has been a lot completely different for Williams.
His solely look for Aberdeen thus far got here in a pre-season pleasant towards Turriff United, taking part in 45 minutes as a part of the warmup schedule.
He missed subsequent friendlies towards Fraserburgh, Preston and Charlton, with supervisor Barry Robson explaining between the latter two video games that he “had a few issues with his back going into his calves.”
Robson’s evaluation on the time was: “He has had to go back and start again with his training regime.”
Nearly two months on and Williams isn’t any nearer to returning for the primary group, with solely 90 minutes for the under-21s and an evening on the bench within the Europa League qualifying defeat to Hacken to indicate for his mortgage thus far.
Talking earlier than Aberdeen’s journey to Hearts on Saturday – the fifth consecutive league recreation Williams has missed – Robson stated his scenario was “stop-start.”
“He’s actually rolled his ankle,” Robson informed the Press and Journal.
“He keeps getting niggle after niggle, where he’s just getting going and then has to stop again, but he’ll get there.”
In quotes carried by AberdeenLive, the supervisor admitted it had been “a real frustrating time” for Williams, however added that “hopefully we will get him back soon.”
Williams has endured irritating mortgage spells in every of the previous two seasons, with stints at Swansea in 2021/22 and Blackpool in 2022/23 each reduce brief.
Which means he has performed 24 video games of senior soccer since his marketing campaign within the Liverpool first group in 2020/21, with the transfer to Aberdeen designed to present him an everyday beginning spot.
The hope can be that he can show his health and declare that within the close to future, with Aberdeen competing on three fronts together with the Europa Convention League.
Eintracht Frankfurt are their first opponents in Europe, with an away tie in Group G on Thursday, whereas HJK and PAOK are additionally of their group.
Aberdeen are into the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup, with Ross County to come back on September 27, whereas they at the moment sit eleventh within the Scottish Premiership.