Aston Villa: Defence worries increase as Luke Young to miss start of season
“Wilfred Bouma is doing fine but that is a wee bit slow again. Maybe towards the end of the month he may be able to come and join in with us which would be encouraging.
“That has been a laborious process and there have been a few setbacks along the way.
“I wouldn’t want to put any time-frame on it but he is definitely getting stronger.”
However, there is a more encouraging fitness bulletin on captain-
elect Stiliyan Petrov, who has returned to training wearing a support on his dislocated shoulder, while Davies is responding well after suffering a recurrence of a similar injury.
“Stiliyan is doing very well and played a bit of football yesterday,” said O’Neill.
“I am not sure about Fiorentina. He was wearing a protection thing today. He just wants to get out and play.
“We will see how he is. At least he is in better shape than he was a fortnight ago for thinking about starting against Wigan.
“Davies has come through. That is one we will have to monitor. He wore a protection thing for most of last season. This time he didn’t have it on when he did the injury.
“All we can do is monitor it. If it is going to be a regular feature - and it wasn’t to be fair last season - then it is something we might look at.
“He is happy enough to continue and the doctor is happy enough for him to continue.”
The draw for the Europa League takes place at UEFA headquarters in Switzerland at noon today.
