Laursen facing lengthy spell out

Last updated : 17 September 2004 By Pancho Villa

The Danish international, who joined David O’Leary’s side from AC Milan during the summer, suffered the setback during the defeat at Charlton on 18 September.

Villa had hoped that the fortnight's break from league action because of World Cup qualifiers would have resulted in an improvement in his condition. But Laursen has failed to recover and will now see a specialist on Monday to try to determine the extent of the problem.

In Laursen’s absence against Chelsea yesterday, O'Leary played with Mark Delaney at centre-back alongside skipper Olof Mellberg as his only real possible alternative, Liam Ridgewell, will be out for another six weeks with a knee injury.