Martin O’Neill has challenged his players to “step up” to the mark against Arsenal tonight as Villa face up to their biggest injury crisis of the campaign.

Stephen Warnock (shin), John Carew (knee), Nigel Reo-Coker (ankle), Marc Albrighton (ankle) and Marlon Harewood (foot) have all been ruled out of the Gunners clash at Villa Park, while skipper Stiliyan Petrov is also struggling with a knock.

The only good news O’Neill has received is that Emile Heskey and Richard Dunne should both be available after sitting out Saturday’s win over Brighton – and the Villa boss insists his squad must pull together to deliver.

“People have really got to now step up for the next couple of months and play their part because the way things are going people will get a chance,” he said.

“Nigel’s injury is worse than we initially thought. He has gone for some scans which showed a bit of damage. He had an injury about five years ago at West Ham – almost like a stress fracture and it is around the same area.

“He doesn’t feel it is as badly as then, when he was out for about seven or eight weeks – that’d be really tough if that was the case. We should know more in two or three days.

“Stephen is going for some scans. He has got an injury on his shin which is causing a lot of pain. I think he would be out.

“Stiliyan Petrov is another problem. We will see how he is later today. I know he was on the bench on Saturday but he hurt himself on Monday and didn’t train yesterday. But Emile trained yesterday and I’m hoping he will be alright.”

O’Neill lost another option yesterday when Craig Gardner sealed his £3m move to Birmingham and, while refusing to be drawn on whether the injury crisis could alter his transfer plans, he strongly hinted Nicky Shorey is likely to return when his loan at Nottingham Forest ends tomorrow.

He added: “We are starting to pick up a few injuries whereas a few weeks ago we had a relatively clean bill of health.

“We will get the game out of the way first but we will probably be looking at having to recall the players we have out on loan.”