Villa handed double boost

Laursen injured a knee in November, while Moore damaged a shoulder in September – both against Chelsea - and Martin O'Neill is pleased with their recovery. "Martin is a bit off yet but it's encouraging to see how he's progressing," he said. "We know that if we set Martin a 12-week target, it would be 10 weeks or less. That's how it works with him."

He will have to wait longer for Moore, but the prognosis with the youngster is also promising. "It's too early to be putting Luke into full training sessions but he's recovering quicker than anticipated. Luke joined in a shooting session on Monday which was very encouraging. It was nice to see him out there with everybody. It's the first time we've seen him since the setback and it will have given him a lift."