Petrov to sit out Old Trafford trip

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill is to leave midfielder Stiliyan Petrov out of his plans for Saturday’s Barclays Premiership clash with Manchester United to enable him to recover fully from a hamstring problem.

Petrov, signed from Celtic for £8million in August, has continued to play, despite clearly being less than 100% fit in recent games because, of a lack of players at O’Neill’s disposal.

But O’Neill has decided to give the former Bulgarian international a break from action at Old Trafford after signs that his performance levels were beginning to dip.

The Villa chief said: “Stiliyan just doesn’t feel right at the minute so we will take him out of proceedings for a while. He has played on for us with a hamstring injury.

“It has not really gone but he feels it is plaguing him a bit and he has a bit of a back problem coming from it.

“He has been terrific in playing on for us but you have to analyse sometimes whether it is the right thing for the player or the right thing for us.

“If you are getting a performance, it’s a different matter but if the performance is not to the standard everyone would expect, that becomes a different issue.”

On a more positive note for O’Neill, Villa central defender Martin Laursen is edging closer to fitness after a two-month lay-off with a knee problem and could play for the reserves next week.

Laursen has started to join in with parts of training at Bodymoor Heath and is ahead of schedule for a comeback after O’Neill originally thought the Danish international would be sidelined for three months.

O’Neill said. “He’s doing a bit of outside work and that’s very encouraging. The reserve game with Fulham postponed on Tuesday would have came too early for him to play.

“But we would be hoping he can play in a reserve game next week.”

Meanwhile, O’Neill remains interested in taking Chelsea winger Shaun Wright-Phillips on loan for the rest of the season although it could depend on striker Milan Baros agreeing to a similar move in the opposite direction.

Baros’ agent Pavel Paska confirmed: “We are waiting for Aston Villa to find an adequate replacement for Milan. If that doesn’t happens, it is very likely there will be no progress in negotiations (with Chelsea).”