Baros misses City clash

Aston Villa striker Milan Baros has been ruled out of Monday’s Premiership clash with Manchester City at Eastlands.

The Czech international is still troubled by the Achilles problem he initially suffered during the Carling Cup tie at Wycombe six weeks ago.

Villa manager David O’Leary hopes Baros maybe able to start light training at the weekend but he will not be fit enough for the meeting with Stuart Pearce’s side.

O’Leary said: “He is doing some work in the swimming pool at the moment but that is all he is doing.

“He is improving but he has got no chance for Monday. He has not been able to get out on to the grass to train yet.

“He might be able to start doing that on Saturday but the game with City will be far too early for him.

“He has done hardly anything for the last five to six weeks.”

Baros’ only action during that time was for his country against Holland in a World Cup qualifier when they gave him an injection to enable him to play without informing Villa.

O’Leary was upset by that move and also knows he will be able to do little to stop the player from being released to participate in the World Cup play-offs in a fortnight’s time if he makes a sufficient recovery.

The Villa boss said: “I’m not concerned about that because there is nothing we can do about it. We’ll have to release him. That’s the way the rules stand.

“All I know is that since he came back from the World Cup qualifiers, we have not been able to play him and the injection made the situation worse.”

Midfielder Gavin McCann and Mark Delaney are both in contention after playing the full 90 minutes against Burnley in the Carling Cup on Tuesday after recovering from knee injuries.