Martin O'Neill facing Aston Villa fitness crisis
Feb 16 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail
VILLA boss Martin O’Neill is anxiously awaiting a positive fitness bulletin on Curtis Davies to avoid a potential UEFA Cup central defensive crisis.
O’Neill also launched a fresh attack on the FA after revealing that Emile Heskey is still struggling with the injury he aggravated on England duty.
Davies played through the pain barrier for 70 minutes of Villa’s FA Cup exit at Everton after dislocating his shoulder in yesterday’s fifth-round tie.
It could leave O’Neill with Zat Knight as his only available specialist centre-half for Wednesday’s home UEFA Cup tie against CSKA Moscow.
Davies injured his shoulder midway through the first half and was wincing in pain when Villa’s medical staff popped the joint back into place.
But O’Neill is hoping the former Albion defender will be passed fit for the opening leg of the last-32 double-header against Zico’s Russians.
With Martin Laursen and Carlos Cuellar also sidelined through injury, the potential crisis highlights Villa’s failure to strengthen during January.
“Curtis was in a lot of pain,” said O’Neill. “His shoulder came out of place and luckily, with a bit of manipulation, it got back in again. We’ll have to look at that. I think it’s happened one time to him before, but that was obviously a big concern. He wanted to play on and the physios and the doctors assured me that once it’s back in there again, hopefully it will settle down, but we’ll see.”
O’Neill is also sweating on the fitness of Heskey, who missed yesterday’s defeat with the Achilles problem which forced him off at Blackburn.
The boss is still seething at England coach Fabio Capello and his medical staff for selecting the injured striker for the friendly in Spain.
“Emile Heskey shouldn’t have played because he had a similar injury to the one he came off with against Blackburn Rovers,” said O’Neill.
“He wants to play for England as does every single one of those young England boys.
“Luke Young was unable to play because he had a really bad toe. But he went down to show his face which England wanted so they could have a look at him. Emile Heskey should really, at that stage, have also been sent home and we would have had a better chance of playing with him at Everton.
“But we didn’t. I cursed my luck, realised when he came back from England duty that he wasn’t going to be fit to play and I just got on with it.”
Steve Sidwell is suspended for the UEFA Cup tie following his sending-off in Hamburg, but Gareth Barry will be available after serving a one-match ban.
