Aston Villa complete second January signing in England youth international

Aston Villa confirmed the signing of Kortney Hause from Wolves on Monday evening, with the defender arriving on an initial loan deal.

Hause, 23, has been out of first team action for some time since the appointment of Nuno at Wolves and leaves the club having not featured in the league all season.

The centre-back - a former England under-21 international - will hope to get his career back on track having been earmarked as a potential star early in his career, with injuries having hampered his progression to date.

Dean Smith was keen to bolster his defensive options this month, with Hause’s arrival following the recall of Tommy Elphick from his loan spell at Hull, with Axel Tuanzebe sidelined.

The new signing will be expected to go straight into the squad for the trip to Wigan on Saturday and compete for a starting berth with the likes of James Chester and Elphick in the weeks to come.

Villa have insisted upon an option to buy the youngster come the end of the campaign in an attempt to avoid losing out on the player should they get the best from him this season.

Cause hasn’t started a league game since 2016/17 but did play 90 minutes as Wolves kept clean sheets against both Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester in the Carabao Cup at the start of this season.