Tuesday Jan 23 2007 13:07
Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has backed Stiliyan Petrov to show his true colours now the former Celtic midfielder has shrugged off a hamstring injury.
Petrov arrived at Villa Park for £8million in the summer, but after a string of mixed performances, was told to take the last two weeks off to rest his troublesome hamstring problem.
But the 27-year-old has now returned to training and is back in contention next week's trip to Newcastle United.
"Stiliyan had been playing with a back-related hamstring problem which had been affecting his play," said O'Neill.
"Players are playing lot of games, not just for our club but all over the place, with little niggles here and there, and Stiliyan was doing that for us as well.
"You don't really want your players playing through the pain barrier with muscle-type injuries such as the one Stiliyan has had because that can affect them.
"It is better to have players out there who are certainly 80 to 90 per cent fit in the games and we gave Stiliyan a break which hopefully will have done the trick."
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