Aston Villa FC

• Nickname:
• Founded:1874
• Manager:Gerard Houllier

• Ground:
• Capacity:NaN

Downing eyes festive return

19 Oct 2009 - 08:30:04

Click To Enlarge

Injured winger Stewart Downing has set his sights on making his Aston Villa debut before Christmas.

The England international has yet to make an appearance for the Midlands club following his £12million summer signing from Middlesbrough as he arrived at Villa Park with a broken foot.

"I'll hopefully be back training in mid-November and then looking to play within a month of that," revealed Downing, who ironically picked up the injury against Villa last season.

"The specialist has been telling me what to do from day one. I had been doing straight line running because I couldn't do twisting and turning.

"But I can do a bit of that now as well so fitness-wise it's just a case of building things up.

"The toughest bit was the first bit when I was on crutches, but now the hard work is done and all those long days slogging away in the gym have been worth it.

"Having the pin removed was a big part of my recovery because that would show it was fully recovered. Now it is just a case of stepping things up."