Martin O’Neill today revealed he is “worried to death” at the impact the international break will have on his in-form Villa team.
Villa went into the break on the back of an eight-match unbeaten start to the season. But, within hours of last week’s draw at Chelsea, nine players departed for action with their countries.
Currently, Villa are without Thomas Sorensen, Olof Mellberg, Martin Laursen, Milan Baros, Stiliyan Petrov, Steven Davis and Aaron Hughes on Euro 2008 qualifying duty.
Gabriel Agbonlahor and Peter Whitttingham are with the England under-21s.
Manager O’Neill is concerned what effect the fortnight’s disruption will have on his squad, who he doesn’t see collectively until next Friday - just 24 hours before they return to Premier League action against Tottenham.
“The international break has come at the wrong time for every reason under the sun,” said O’Neill.
“You worry yourself to death about players going away and I won’t see most of them again until the Friday before the Tottenham game.
“We’ve got nine players away on international duty and it’s a genuine concern whether they will all come back fit. I think I speak for every manager at club level who finds continuity broken from it.
“If you were in a bad run, maybe the break would be a good thing. If you’re in a reasonable run then it just breaks up momentum.”
Villa lost Aaron Hughes for two games after the last international break after he came back from Northern Ireland duty with a thigh problem.
The signing of Chris Sutton hs at least given the Villa boss another option after Luke Moore was injured. But with a squad the same size as David O’Leary had last season, O’Neill is concerned about players picking up knocks.
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