Craig Gardner stays on the Aston Villa sidelines for Derby trip

Apr 9 2008 By Bill Howell

CRAIG Gardner is out of this weekend's trip to Derby County and looks to be a big doubt for the derby against Blues the following Sunday.

The versatile youngster injured his thigh on England Under-21 duty and has missed the last two matches, against Manchester United and Bolton.

Martin O'Neill will keep Olof Mellberg at right-back and will hope for a return to training at some stage next week for 21-year-old Gardner, who has started 15 league games this season.

"Craig's coming on," said O'Neill on Gardner's fitness.

"Roddy McDonald (the club doctor) said to me on Monday if he can get a decent couple of days training he might be able to join full training next week.

"That's very much a 'might' at this point. I really don't know whether he'll be fit for the Birmingham game yet.

"He's played quite a few games so I don't know whether he'll need a reserve game. In an ideal world it would be great for him to get half an hour at some point."

Meanwhile, Curtis Davies has set himself a target of returning to action by the end of August, one month ahead of schedule.

The centre-back faces a long summer training alone in a bid to be fit for the majority of next season.