Agbonlahor ready for action

Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has returned to training ahead of Saturday's trip to Wigan.

Last Updated: 22/02/12 at 11:28 Post Comment   

Agbonlahor: Suffering with back and hamstring problems

Agbonlahor: Suffering with back and hamstring problems

The 25-year-old has missed the recent matches against QPR, Newcastle and Manchester City due to problems associated to his back and hamstrings.

But Agbonlahor, who this season has scored six goals in 24 appearances, has undergone a new fitness campaign to strengthen muscles in key areas and is reaping the benefits.

McLeish has confirmed the key forward is ready to return in the game at the DW Stadium and hopes his comeback can rescue Villa's disappointing season.

The Villa boss told his club's official website: "Gabby is training. That's great news. He looked great in training on Tuesday. He eased himself into training on Monday.

"But he was tremendous on Tuesday and looked really, really sharp. He's bursting to get that Villa jersey on again.

"He had a lull with the injury. It would be great to have him on fire again. Defences throughout the Premier League fear him, no doubt about that.

"They fear Gabby when he's in the mood. We are no different to any other team in that if you are missing your top players it can be a big miss.

"If you look at Manchester United, then I'm sure Sir Alex (Ferguson) doesn't want to be losing Wayne Rooney and it is the same here with us and Gabby."

Villa will be without Ciaran Clark against Wigan due to a knee problem which is expected to take a month to heal, while Richard Dunne is still absent with his shoulder injury.

But midfielder Chris Herd has returned from an ankle injury with a 60-minute appearance against West Brom reserves after a two-month lay-off from competitive action.

McLeish said: "It was great to see Chris back and fit again.

"It's still probably difficult to judge if he can come right into the pace of the game at Premier League level, but such is the way the squad is stretched at the moment we have to consider that."

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t's a bit sad to see Bosingwa leaving after he finally seemed to show some defensive ability when moved to centre back against Barca, but at least we'll be forced to pick up some sort of right fullback as cover. His new haircut seemed to decrease the prominence of the monobrow too.

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oey has been an integral part of the club and has played his part. Played his part in what? Destroying QPR?

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Barton handed 12-match ban

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ou realise this means he'll have more free time to tweet, appear on newsnight, and google philosphers... ban seems about right, but there will never be consistency from the FA, so that completely undermines any possible lesson to the kids. Apart from the lesson about being part of an important cash cow.

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Barton handed 12-match ban

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