Villa assistant manager Gary McAllister has revealed Stiliyan Petrov, Fabian Delph and Steve Sidwell are straining at the leash to get back in first-team action.

The midfield trio have are close to completing their rehabilitation from injury and Delph, in particular, is pushing the coaching staff to include him in the squad to face Wigan tomorrow.

But, following Villa’s recent injury problems, McAllister insisted the club intend to exercise caution.

He said: “The three of them are bursting, to be honest with you.

“These are three guys who are hungry, they have a good appetite for the game and the thing with these three players is it won’t be having to push them.

“We’ll have to keep the breaks on them so they don’t try and get back too early.

“They’ve been out quite a while, especially Fabian. He is into the final furlong but we don’t want to rush the last bit.”

Villa will definitely welcome back Gabby Agbonlahor for the trip to the DW Stadium after he recovered from a chest infection, which kept him out of the win over Albion.

Nigel Reo-Coker could also come into the centre of midfield, after showing no ill-effects to a knee problem in coming off the bench against the Baggies.

McAllister also admitted that Villa must follow up their win over Albion with a similar gutsy performance against Wigan.

The Latics are currently third from bottom, but McAllister believes they still have players capable of producing a moment of inspiration to decide the match.

He said: “I think the emphasis is definitely on results at the moment and if we can ally that to performance then so be it – that is even better. But we want to go there and dig out a win if we’re brutally honest.

“Roberto Martinez plays in a certain way. All the teams he’s managed all try to get the ball down and pass it and it won’t be any different against us. We’re aware of that.

“I think they’re very good in possession and they’ve got some dangerous players who we’ll speak about before we go up there, but we’ve got to be concentrating on what we’re doing.

“We’ll give them the respect that they deserve, but we’ve got to try and get some sort of little run going.”