Laursen Season K.O

Martin Laursen is unlikely to play again this season for Aston Villa, which is a major blow for Martin O'Neill as they chase Arsenal for the last qualifing place for the Champions League.

The Dane has suffered for sometime with a persistant knee problem and after aggrevating the old injury against West Brom back in January its looks pretty much as though he'll not play again this season.

Martin Laursen as been inspirational this season and has been really for the last couple of seasons, when you watch him play you can understand why Martin O'Neill has made him his captain, because not only does he lead, he leads by example and has quite a good goal tally for Villa as well and if there's one thing you can guarantee is that if there's a corner floated in, Laursen's normally on the end of it and thats what teams need to succeed at this level, a player who can play at either end of the pitch.

Villa also have Gabby Agbonlahor struggling to be fit for the weekend and as Martin O'Neill explains to AVTV, the Englishman isn't his only injury worry.

"Martin is struggling. There's not much more to say. He'll be struggling to play again before the end of the season.

"Gabby came off the pitch on Sunday with a hamstring niggle. It seems to be getting better. But we are awaiting the results of a scan which should be through some time later this afternoon.

"At the back of the doctor's mind is a concern that he may have strained it. That would make him doubtful for this weekend's game. He certainly seems to be responding - no doubt about that - but he still remains a doubt for the West Ham match.

"Emile has trained for the last couple of days and that is encouraging for us. It would be good if he could make it for the weekend.

"We will see how he is later in the week because we have a few days yet. But at least he has been out training and he is certainly making progress."

The Villa boss also revealed long-term absentee Wilfred Bouma had suffered a setback in his return from an ankle injury - although MON is hopeful it will be "days rather than weeks" before he is back in training.

He added: "Wilfred has suffered a bit of a setback over the past week. He was doing well - he played in the Tottenham reserve game but his ankle felt sore afterwards.

"He is a little bit uncomfortable at the moment. He hasn't trained but it shouldn't be too bad. I feel he has just had a bit of a setback. We hope it's days rather than weeks."

By Steven Fisher