The midfield player, Villa’s most consistent performer in an unpredictable season, has been hampered with a knee injury for the past few months. He has been able to play through the pain but with fixtures clustered around Christmas, the 26-year-old may be forced to sit at least one game out – probably against Manure on 28 December.
“I think he’ll be getting to that stage pretty soon where he needs to do that [rest]. He would play with his head or his leg hanging off if it was possible,” O’Leary hilariously quipped, clearly overcome by seasonal ribaldry as he touched his nose and swung a cue for his resident drummer to do a comedy roll.