Aston Villa's Charles N'Zogbia not 'frozen out'
Paul Lambert today denied Charles N'Zogbia has been frozen out at Villa and insisted the winger is simply a long way short of match fitness.
N'Zogbia has been out all season with a ruptured Achilles sustained during a summer holiday in Miami. Earlier this week the 27-year-old – a £10m signing from Wigan in 2011 – posted messages on social media hinting he was out of favour at Villa Park.
Lambert says the winger is training with the club's youth team because he can't yet cope with the rigours of the first team.
"His injury was really bad," he said. "Charles has been training with the kids, he is still really short of match fitness."
You have to get up to top level. I don't think he's ready for anything like that at this moment.
"He's still really short of match fitness. You can do all the training you want, you can work with fitness lads, but for this level of football you have got to get yourself up to the top level.
"I don't think he's ready for anything like that at the minute but he's training.
"When you're coming to train with the first team it's difficult because of the speed of it and the tempo of it."
