Six sidelined for Leeds United's next opponents and unusual goalkeeper issue

Villa will present United’s next opposition but not until the afternoon of Sunday, October 3 when Gerrard’s side line up at Elland Road for a 4.30pm kick-off.

The Premier League decided to postpone all of last weekend’s games as a mark of respect to Queen Elizabeth II following Her Majesty’s passing at Balmoral last Thursday afternoon.

Top-flight action is resuming this weekend and Villa host Southampton on Friday night.

Leeds, though, have seen Sunday’s fixture at Manchester United postponed due to events surrounding the Queen’s State Funeral the following day and concerns over the number of officers Greater Manchester Police will have at their disposal.

The Whites are consequently now in a period of 28 days without a game due to the final two weeks of the month being taken out by an international break.

Villa’s Polish international right-back Matty Cash suffered a hamstring injury in the first half of the 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City at the start of this month and the 25-year-old has pulled out of the Poland squad for this month’s internationals.

And Gerrard has an unusual issue in goal for Friday night’s game against the Saints as his three first choice ‘keepers Emi Martinez, Robin Olsen and Jed Steer are currently sidelined at the same time although the Villa boss is optimistic that Martinez and Olsen will be fit to play.

Both Martinez and key striker Ollie Watkins have been unwell this week whilst Olsen missed training due to a knee issue.

Steer and Diego Carlos remain out longer term as they recover from Achilles injuries.

Providing his latest team news at Thursday afternoon’s press conference, Gerrard said as quoted by avfc.co.uk: “We’ve got a few issues that we need to make late calls on.

“Ollie Watkins was a little bit unwell at the beginning of the week, we’ll make a late call on Ollie.

“Emi Martínez missed training today and we also had Robin Olsen out of training today.

“That doesn’t mean they won’t be available tomorrow but again we’ll have to make sensible decisions on both.

“Obviously Jan isn’t available because Southampton are his parent club.”

Gerrard added: “Emi just hasn’t been feeling too good overnight.

“I don’t think it’s a big issue so we’ve had him in front of the doctor, given him some medicine to hopefully make him feel better in the coming hours.

“I’ve got no doubt he’ll put through, I think he’ll be available.”

In the event that both Martinez and Olsen are unable to face the Saints, 19-year-old Filip Marschall would be Gerrard’s next port of call considering that Steer is out longer term.

Gerrard, though, was in relaxed mood at his pre-match press conference.

“You’ve not seen me in goal yet, have ya!?" said the Villa boss as quoted by Birmingham Live.

“I expect us to be OK. I don’t think Emi’s situation is enough to miss a game in 24 hours.

"This is a sensible decision really for him not to train when he’s not feeling too good.

"Knowing Emi, I’m sure he’ll pull through.

"Robin’s done enough to feel OK to be available but I’ll make a decision on both in the coming hours.”

Of 19-year-old Marschall, Gerrard said: “Filip’s done really well, really good.

“I'm sure he's champing at the bit and bet he's thinking, 'Oh, I might get to be on the bench, here!'

“We've told him to be ready. He's prepared to be ready. He's trained really well and he's been travelling with us for some time now. I'd have no doubts putting him in that situation.

I have no problems using these kids, I'm an academy man.

“You never know if they're good enough until they're tossed in. We’ll see but I do think both players (Olsen, Martinez) will be available.”