Source: Eurosport
O'Neill won't make Emile of setback
Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill insists he has no gripes with Fabio Capello despite striker Emile Heskey being injured while on England duty.O'Neill was upset when Capello opted to start with Heskey in February's clash with Spain in Seville when he had reported for duty with an Achilles problem.That led to the former Wigan striker being sidelined for the FA Cup tie with Everton and the UEFA Cup first-leg meeting with CSKA Moscow.Now Heskey has been ruled out of Sunday's trip to Manchester United with the hamstring injury sustained during England's 4-0 win over Slovakia at Wembley last weekend.But O'Neill has no axe to grind this time with Capello as Heskey had reported fully fit for duty.O'Neill said: "I haven't a problem with this one because it is two separate situations. When Emile went to the international with Spain he had come off injured in the match we had played beforehand at Blackburn."He then came off in the second half with England because of the same injury and was unable to play for us in the next game and I was annoyed about things."This is a different scenario where someone goes away properly fit and just picks up an injury that can happen anytime. That can't be helped. It is a blow but it is one of those things."In fairness, the rest of the players who went away on international duty are fit so, in terms of percentages, we are probably not too badly off."However, O'Neill will not be able to call upon left-back Wilfred Bouma as he has suffered a reaction to the dislocated ankle that has ruled him out for the past eight months.Bouma played his third reserve game against Tottenham on Monday.O'Neill said: "He is pretty sore at the moment. There is a bit of swelling over one of the protective screws in his ankle. It is irritating and quite painful but not a long-term worry. But he won't be able to play this Sunday."The situation is not looking encouraging in terms of skipper Martin Laursen being fit enough to return to action this season.The former Denmark international and Villa skipper suffered a reaction to his knee injury during Villa's recent training break in Dubai.O'Neill had hoped the 30-year-old could return at Old Trafford but, when asked if Laursen will play again this season, he said: "I don't know, I don't know precisely, I don't know."O'Neill is urging Villa to recapture their form of earlier in the season after an eight-game run without a victory that has seen them drop to fifth place in the Premier League.He said: "We have our own standards and have dropped below them. When you are in a bad run, you want to get out of it as quickly as possible."It is up to us to determine how our season goes again. We have still a fifth of it left. We have got to try and do something about it."We have been stuck on 52 points for some time and the first target is to pass last year's points tally of 60 and then we will see where we go."The games coming up are never going to be easy. We want to get back on track and move the scoreboard along."[LNB]
