Steven Gerrard has detailed how Danny Ings was prepared to leave his newborn child to play for Aston Villa against Wolves – but the head coach put a stop to it given the striker’s lack of sleep. Ings, 29, became a dad for the first time but was happy to travel despite being in London prior to kick-off at Molineux. In the end, Gerrard named Leon Bailey as Ings’s replacement up front, with the Jamaican starting his first game since December 1. Morgan Sanson was also given the nod in midfield, with Villa going down 2-1 in the Black Country.
Steven Gerrard said: “I don’t know if you know that Danny Ings became a dad after 3am and had very little sleep but still wanted to come and be a part of it. But he went to London, and I can’t give you too much detail beyond that. From my point of view, he wasn’t in a position to come and play. So, obviously, Leon (Bailey) gets his opportunity on the back of that. Morgan’s been training extremely well. He’s been patient. I have to have a look at Morgan Sanson at some point. I have to put him in and give him an opportunity because he can’t keep training well, and we ignore that. That’s only fair, so we gave both of them an opportunity.”
Elsewhere, Gerrard confirmed Lucas Digne had a stomach issue following his withdrawal on 13 minutes with Villa 1-0 down to Jonny’s opener at the time. The full-back is expected to be back for Villa’s fixture with Tottenham next week. Asked what he thought of Sanson’s performance,
Steven Gerrard added: “Every game’s tough. It’s the Premier League. There’s no gimmes. Every dual, every opponent you come up against is tough. It’s not the time right now to analyse Morgan Sanson’s performance. For me, the priority is the team. The biggest frustration to me is that we never came to a derby game until half-time. We never really showed that we cared enough until the 70th minute because we wanted to have a war with Wolves because it was all too little too late.”
