Aston Villa boss Dean Smith: Jack Grealish '100 per cent' ready for Euro 2020
Dean Smith believes Jack Grealish can light up Euro 2020 after declaring the Villa skipper is “100 per cent” ready for England duty.
Grealish was named in Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad earlier this week, though his fitness will be monitored before the final 26-man group is named on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old missed three months of the season with a shin injury and Villa boss Smith admits there were fears he might not recover in time for the tournament.
But after returning for the club’s final four Premier League matches - completing 90 minutes in last weekend’s season finale against Chelsea - Smith has no concerns over his ability to handle the summer workload.
He said: "Jack is 100 percent. Firstly, we had to make sure he was ready to play for Villa. That's what he wanted to make sure he was ready for as well.
"We wouldn't take a risk with only four games to go, with a player of Jack's standing and quality, unless it was the right thing to do.
"We all believed it was the right thing to do - for him and for Villa.
"Then, once the season finished, if he gets picked for England, which hopefully he does - then it's the right thing for England as well.”
Grealish made his long-awaited Three Lions debut last September and was enjoying the best season of his career before the injury struck.
Smith said: “The first two-thirds of the season, Jack was one of the best players in the Premier League.
“It is easy to forget that because he missed so much at the back end but I don't think the FA have.
“He did so well and impressed when he arrived into the England squad, while his standing in the game in the Premier League has gone up another level.
“They were probably just behind us in wanting him to be back as soon as possible.
“He does (relish the limelight). 'Jackmania' probably started two years ago when we got to the Premier League.
“He’s had ups and downs as most people do but he handles it well. He has matured as a person and let’s hope he can go there and light it up. I’m sure he can.”
Smith, meanwhile, revealed Villa are making changes to Grealish’s load management to limit the danger of the injury re-occurring.
The club’s medical staff have also liaised with their England counterparts over his training schedule.
He said: "I think he's been worried right the way through - as were we - about when he would come back and whether we would run out of games.
“It can recur but we’re taking steps to make sure it doesn’t. With a loading injury you’ve got to go and manage the loads of the players.
“His load management now will be planned a lot tighter, a lot stricter. There are certainly different exercises he can do to improve the soleus muscle in the calves to stop or help the loading.
“It’s like a car: you have the springs on the car to help the balance and that's what the muscles do in the calf.
“It helps protect the bone from the loading. We’ve just got to build up his muscles in that area. Not the muscles that you see on the back because they're obviously big enough but the smaller ones on the side.
"There was no risk at all for us to put him back into the squad. If we felt there was any kind of future risk then we would have just shut him down for the rest of the season and he wouldn't have had the chance to go to the Euros.
"But it wasn't a risk. The injury wasn't as bad as the one he had a couple of years ago which made him miss a period in the Championship. We're quite happy where he is now."
