Villa skipper fit and up for the cup
Friday 26th February 2010, 11:35AM GMT.
Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov is dreaming of lifting the Carling Cup after declaring himself fit to face Manchester United in the final at Wembley on Sunday.
The skipper missed Wednesday’s FA Cup replay victory over Crystal Palace, after being struck down with a virus at the start of the week.
But Petrov is now recovered and is desperate to get his hands on the club’s first piece of major silverware for 14 years in this weekend’s eagerly-anticipated final.
He said: “It would be a great moment. It would be really special for me, not just because I’m a captain but it will be a special moment for everybody because we worked so hard to get there. Everybody wants to win silverware and we are so close to doing it.
“I hope in the end we can be happy because we’re not going there to be passengers who just go and see Wembley and enjoy the day, we are going there to put up a fight and do our best to win.
“It’s a massive game for this club, the players and the fans.”
The Bulgaria international returned to training yesterday after being given the all-clear by Villa’s medical staff and revealed the prospect of playing in a final was all the motivation needed.
He said: “It is better,. I’ve been on antibiotics for the last three or four days so it is going to get better. We are expecting for it to improve every day.
“I did a bit of training yesterday to try to catch up on fitness. I think it should be OK for Sunday. It was not really a major worry. The last game against Burnley I played with a little fever and then I felt really bad after the game.
“I had a lot of pain in my body, my chest was really tight and on Monday I was really bad, so I started the antibiotics straightaway. I’ve had my chest checked and it was clear.
“Even if I had been a doubt I was going to push to the end, because we have worked so hard as a team to get that final and nobody would want to miss it.”
Villa have an otherwise clean bill of health for the contest, with the exception of their long-term injury worries.
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