Aston Villa: Nigel Reo-Coker told not to spill the beans on spat with Martin O'Neill

Sep 22 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

NIGEL Reo-Coker has been discouraged from dishing the dirt on his angry altercation with Martin O’Neill after being accepted back into the first-team fold.

Reo-Coker met with O’Neill yesterday to apologise for last Thursday’s training ground spat and he is in contention for tomorrow’s Carling Cup tie with Cardiff.

But the former West Ham captain is expected to maintain a dignified silence rather than giving his account of the Bodymoor Heath bust-up with the boss.

Reo-Coker and O’Neill became embroiled in a furious exchange five days ago but the manager insisted the “contretemps” was verbal rather than physical.

O’Neill banned the midfielder from playing in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Portsmouth and suspended him from the training ground from Friday until yesterday.

But the boss is unlikely to take any further action against Reo-Coker, who had started Villa’s three previous Premier League wins in his preferred central role.

Reo-Coker trained with his team-mates yesterday morning and the 25-year-old stayed behind for an extra running session on his own during the afternoon.

Meanwhile, ahead of tomorrow’s third-round tie, captain Stiliyan Petrov is targeting Carling Cup glory as the next stage of Villa’s development.