The England player attempted a comeback for Villa's reserve side against Manchester United last week after three months on the sidelines and appeared to have come through after he scored in the 4-4 draw. But the ankle has not responded and now he has had further surgery to clean the break with David O'Leary admitting: “We don't expect to see Darius for a long time.
“The surgeon wanted to see whether he could get on with playing but some people have got different pain thresholds and Darius just can't get on with it. We won't see him for a long time.”