Aston Villa have left new signing Taylor Harwood-Bellis and teenage striker Brian Madjo out of their squad for the league stage of the Champions League, a decision manager Unai Emery described as "hard." Central defender Harwood-Bellis joined for an initial £25m from Southampton on deadline day, while 17-year-old Madjo scored Villa's equaliser against Paris St-Germain in a 2-1 Super Cup defeat in August.

Madjo has made only that appearance this season and is currently injured. "It's hard for the decision we took and for the players too," said Emery ahead of Saturday's Premier League game at Hull. "But the experience we have here with some players before as well, two years ago, [Donyell] Malen and Andres [Garcia] were out."

Emery explained the decision was based on analysis of the eight-match league phase, with Madjo out for at least two weeks and Modou Keba Cisse also injured. "Taylor arrived as the last one and we can get the balance with Lamare Bogarde in case we need a centre-back or we even can play [Boubacar] Kamara."

He added that Harwood-Bellis, who signed long-term, and Madjo will have future opportunities in Europe. Villa open their Champions League campaign against Club Brugge on Tuesday, 8 September.