Darren Bent returns to training for Aston Villa

The striker has missed four games after suffering a foot injury but was also laid low by flu this week.

He kicked a team-mate's boot in training in February to rule him out for a month – although it was initially feared he would miss the rest of the season.

But the £24m man could return to the bench for Sunday's visit of Liverpool as Villa hunt a third straight win.

Boss Paul Lambert said: "Benty's back training. He had a little flu bug there for the last few days but I think he's OK.

"He trained on Thursday so he's back. He got a kick, one of the lads caught his foot. It was a bit tender to kick the ball, but he's OK. It could have been worse, he's OK now."

Marc Albrighton is also back in training after three months out with a broken foot but is not in contention for Sunday.

Ciaran Clark returned from Ireland duty with a shoulder injury while Brett Holman failed to train yesterday after coming back from Australia with a hamstring problem and they face fitness tests.

Lambert added: "There are one or two with little niggles. Ciaran came off for Ireland. Brett never trained on Thursday. We will see how those two lads are."

Villa are just three points above the Premier League drop zone and could slip into the bottom three if Wigan beat Norwich tomorrow.

But two straight wins have enhanced their chances of avoiding relegation and Lambert insisted they can maintain their winning run.

"I think it's just the lads having the belief they can go and win games and never be too down," he said. "They're only four points away from 11th and a few weeks ago everybody thought 11th would be clear of us. It just shows you that with those two wins you pull everybody back into it.

"I want to go and try and win it (on Sunday). The QPR game was the first time this club has won two back-to-back games in two years. Somebody has told me that if we win a third one then it's back to 2009-10 since we won three on the trot. It's a long time so we may as well try to do it."