Villa chief reveals virus fears

Martin O'Neill is hoping a virus does not affect any of his influential Aston Villa players ahead of Saturday's trip to Stoke City.

The Villa boss was left without top scorer Gabby Agbonlahor for last Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final win at Reading, while a member of his backroom staff has since been taken ill. And, as O'Neill looks for his players to keep alive their hopes of a top-four finish at the Britannia Stadium this weekend, he is hoping that nobody else falls victim.
He told the Birmingham mail: "One of our physiotherapists, Stuart Walker, has gone down with something similar (to Agbonlahor) so I'm hoping this won't be spreading around the team for the weekend. But we'll see how it goes.
"Gabby was pretty ill on Sunday and that was a real disappointment. But sometimes your fate is in other people's hands and as it turns out it was in John Carew's feet.
"Gabby missed training earlier this week and I'm hoping it's one of those 48 to 72-hour viruses or something like that."