Unai Emery issued a frosty response after being quizzed on Marcus Rashford's injury following Aston Villa's disappointing defeat against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final. The on-loan Manchester United attacker wasn't involved in the 3-0 loss at Wembley Stadium.

Rashford, who joined Villa on a short-term deal in the January transfer window, had scored in mid-week against Champions League qualification rivals Manchester City. However, he was taken off at half-time during the defeat and wasn't named in the squad for Saturday's last-four clash against Palace.

When asked about Rashford's absence by BBC Sport, a stubborn Emery replied: “You know because you made the question before. I told you, he’s injured.” He later added in a press conference that Villa could be without Rashford for “some weeks.”

The 27-year-old has registered six goal contributions during his spell at Villa Park, and Emery's side certainly missed him during a frustrating evening in the capital. Their best efforts came from range, with Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson enjoying a relatively comfortable 90 minutes between the sticks.

Reacting to his side's performance, Emery stated: “I’m sorry for our supporters. We were very motivated and we wanted to share our moment with them here in the semi-final. We have to accept how we lost this match, because Crystal Palace played very well and we didn’t perform like we are usually doing."

He added: “How we are increasing our level and our demands through Europe, in the Conference League last year and Champions League and FA Cup this year, we have to be happy, motivated and excited about how we are improving and increasing so quickly the process we are doing here.

“In some matches like today, when we’re being disappointed and frustrated, we have to dominate our frustration and disappointed moments and keep going. We have to change again our objective because the Premier League is our priority. Through it we can again play in Europe next year."

It's been a shaky couple of weeks for Villa, whose Champions League dreams ended at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain before hopes of qualifying for next year's edition were dashed with the defeat against City on Tuesday. They now sit four points off the top five spots in the Premier League with just four matches of the season to play.

They'll re-focus their top-five push on Saturday when they take on fellow European hopefuls Fulham at Villa Park in the early kick-off. Following that, Emery and co. will wrap their season up with matches against Bournemouth, Tottenham and United.