Luke Young taking specialist advice

Villa defender Luke Young has been to see a medical specialist in London in a bid to end his ongoing injury nightmare.

Villa defender Luke Young has been to see a medical specialist in London in a bid to end his ongoing injury nightmare.

The full-back has not featured for the Villa since they suffered a 3-0 defeat against Liverpool at the beginning of December last year.

Young was initially sidelined with hip injury but subsequently picked up ankle and knee problems which have frustrated his attempts at a comeback.

And manager Gerard Houllier today confirmed the 31-year-old travelled to the capital to try to solve the problem.

"Luke saw a specialist yesterday in London, so it will depend what the results are," said Houllier.

"He does training and he doesn't feel anything and then at training the following day he feels something.

"Obviously we need to sort that out. I played him regularly every game until the Liverpool game and then after that he got injured and never came back."

There was more encouraging news from Houllier on Stewart Downing who limped out of the final 10 minutes of Villa's 3-1 defeat to Manchester United. "Stewart should be okay for Fulham, it was just a kick on the side of his shin," Houllier added.

England Under-21 coach Stuart Pearce has called up four Villa players for the friendly against Italy on February 8. Midfielders Marc Albrighton and Fabian Delph, striker Nathan Delfouneso along with on-loan Tottenham right-back Kyle Walker are all named.