Jonathan Hogg has urged Villa’s walking wounded not to let the mental scars endured by injury affect their performances on the pitch.

Manager Gerard Houllier has confirmed Steve Sidwell, Fabian Delph and Stiliyan Petrov are all back in training after long-term injures.

Hogg can empathise with any nerves they may have ahead of a return to action having suffered a serious knee injury that put his career in doubt.

But he knuckled down with his rehabilitation work and showed the kind of determination to come back stronger and win a place in the first team.

And the 22-year-old midfielder believes Villa’s crocked stars should not let the psychological damage done by their injuries affect their approach to matches.

“You can’t change your game because that is what you are good at,” said Hogg.

“I did my lateral ligament, my lateral hamstring and damaged my cruciate at Spurs away for the reserves.

“It was a horrendous tackle and my leg was a mess when I first did it.

“But now my knee is as strong as it has ever been. You need a lot of mental strength. I’ve worked on that and I’ve got it and I wouldn’t back out of any tackle.

“At one stage I was thinking my career could have been over the state my knee was in, but now I’m back and looking forward to every occasion.

“You can’t just think ‘I’m injured and that could be the end of me’. I thought ‘I’m going to press on and give it everything, give it my best shot’.

“It was tough but if you want to get back from injury you have to put everything you can into it.”

Middlesbrough-born Hogg admitted his rehabilitation from injury was a laborious process and can understand how his team-mates could become easily frustrated.

“The rehab is boring but you have to go to try and make it enjoyable,” explained Hogg. “Obviously you don’t like doing leg weights or just running by yourself but you just have to grind through it and put everything you’ve got into it.

“The months soon go by and all of sudden you’ve got a month left until you’re back training, then it’s a week and then you are straight back in there.

“You’ve got to break it up gradually up but I’m back now and that’s all that matters.

“My friends and family also supported me right the way through, which helped.”