Aston Villa hit by three late injuries ahead of Fulham game
Jan 30 2010 By Mat Kendrick
MARTIN O’Neill’s planning for today’s visit to Fulham could face late disruption after three key players sat out training with minor knocks yesterday.
Stiliyan Petrov, James Milner and and Gabriel Agbonlahor all missed training as a precaution and will undergo fitness tests before the tough match at Craven Corrage.
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While today’s game might lack much of the glamour of many of Villa’s recent assignments, it promises to be as testing as most of them. Under the astute leadership of Roy Hodgson, the west London club sits tenth in the Premiership, a laudable position built largely upon a strong home record.
Of ten league visitors to Craven Cottage this season only Chelsea and Arsenal have left with three points.
Villa will have to be resilient if they are to complete the double over Hodgson’s side, whom they beat 2-0 at Villa Park in August.
So O’Neill would appreciate as full a hand as possible to pick from but he could be down somewhere close to the bare bones after he confirmed that, alongside the latest clutch of casualties, striker John Carew is not yet ready to return to the first-team fray after injury.
“John has come back into training but only trained yesterday and wouldn’t have done enough to be in contention,” the manager said.
“Petrov’s achilles is a concern and we have to keep monitoring it. He didn’t train on Friday and neither did Milner or Agbonlahor.
“I am hoping that all three will be available tomorrow and then we have a free week after that which will be good because there aren’t too many of those coming up. We will have to be very careful with players.”
The absence of any of Petrov, Milner or Agbonlahor would be a blow but O’Neill singled out Petrov for praise after another fine display from the Bulgarian in the midweek draw with Arsenal.
“Petrov has been remarkable,” the manager said. “I think he set the tone of the game the other night. He got into the game early on, drove us forward has been really fantastic. As a captain, I couldn’t ask anymore of him with the things he has done on and off the field.
“He tries to look after the players as well as possible, as well as any captain I have ever known, and on the field in the last two seasons he has been fantastic.”
Follow Fulham v Aston Villa from 2.30pm today on our live blog with Andy Walker and Mat Kendrick
