Douglas Luiz completes return to Aston Villa after Nottingham Forest nightmare to ease Unai Emery's midfield injury crisis

When Luiz swapped Villa for Juventus, the midfielder struggled to make his mark in Serie A. He himself admitted last February that it took him time to adjust to life away from the Premier League.

Luiz said: "Here I found a different kind of football. I know that Serie A is as complicated as the Premier League, but there are other aspects that have affected my adaptation. Happy with the club, the coach and my teammates, I want to continue here and give my best."

Unfortunately for him, things didn't get much better. He made 27 appearances in all competitions for The Old Lady but many of those were from the bench. When it became clear he was not part of Juve's plans for this season, he sealed a loan move to Forest - but that didn't work out either. After mainly being on the fringes under manager Sean Dyche, Luiz is coming back to Villa Park.

On Wednesday, Villa confirmed that Luiz would spend the second half of the season with them amid a time when they are short on midfielders. Youri Tielemans is out for more than two months, Boubacar Kamara is likely to miss the rest of the season, and John McGinn could be sidelined for a while. So the 27-year-old's arrival comes at a good time for the Villans.

In a statement, Villa said: "Aston Villa is delighted to announce that Douglas Luiz has joined the club on loan from Juventus. The Brazilian international departed Villa in the summer of 2024 to join the Italian giants but will spend the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign at Villa Park. Luiz first signed for Villa in 2019 going on to make over 200 appearances during five years in claret and blue, helping the club qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League and UEFA Champions League in consecutive seasons. A gold medal-winner for Brazil at the Tokyo Olympic Games, he was also voted Aston Villa’s Players’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Season at the end of the 2022/23 campaign. Welcome back, Dougie!"

Harvey Elliott's loan move to Villa has proven to be a disaster. Liverpool inserted a clause into the deal whereby if the 22-year-old played 10 times, Villa would have to pay around £35m ($48m). His last first-team appearance came way back in October. Ahead of their Europa League clash with Red Bull Salzburg, Emery confirmed Elliott's future remains uncertain.

"There are still five days to finish the window," said the Spaniard. "Everything we accepted before, only some injuries can change it, like Douglas Luiz is a player joining us because we had injuries in centre midfield.  With Harvey, it’s not changing. Our idea is that we spoke to him clearly. He’s a fantastic guy. On Sunday, he was on the bench, and if we needed some help from him, he was ready to do it. He is in the squad tomorrow. But the situation is not changing for him that he has now."

It remains to be seen if Elliott will return to Liverpool, something that would require Villa to pay a fee to terminate the deal. He could move to a team outside of Europe, such as one in Major League Soccer, but he cannot play for another side on the continent after featuring for Liverpool and Villa this season. The picture may become clear after the transfer window shuts on February 2.