Aston Villa's Leon Bailey delighted to be injury free

The Jamaica forward had an injury-ravaged first season in claret and blue where he was able to show only brief glimpses of his best form.

However, having recovered from a series of injury blows, the 24-year-old has fired three goals in pre-season including the leveller against Stade Rennais in France on Saturday.

Coming back from a goal down, Villa went on to win the clash 2-1 thanks to a late headed goal from defensive recruit Diego Carlos in Brittany. And Bailey is now focused on pushing his Villa career forwards as he looks to book a starting berth for their curtain raiser at Bournemouth on Saturday.

“It feels amazing. I feel good, I trust my body more. This is what I’ve always wanted to do for the club, and I will always try and give 100 per cent any time I get the chance to do so,” Bailey said in an interview with VillaTV. “It’s nice to score goals and give assists for the team, but more so in this pre-season it’s helped a lot to give me confidence in my body again. It was rough due to injury last year but I feel good about this season and I’m looking forward to it.”

And the former Bayer Leverkeusen star added: "For the players it’s nice to finish pre-season because we can now focus on the season, and to finish unbeaten.

"It’s gone really well for us and I’m really excited about it.

"Pre-season is about getting the fitness up and getting sharp. We’re gelling properly together as a team.

"We’re looking really sharp together and I think there are a lot of positives. I think there is still a lot of stuff we need to work on, but they’re the bits we’re always trying to get better at. Moving forwards into the season we’re looking solid.”