Richard Dunne urged to stay patient over Aston Villa return

Defender Richard Dunne was today urged to remain patient by Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish as he edges closer to a return to fitness.

The experienced centre-back underwent an operation on a fractured collarbone sustained against Manchester City in February.

Dunne is desperate to get some games under his belt to regain his sharpness before he heads to Euro 2012 with Ireland but McLeish has preached caution.

"Richard is training well, he's in the capable hands of the physios and fitness coach Adrian Lamb," said the Scot.

"He's running freely with no pain in the shoulder so the healing process is just about there. It might be holding him back – that's the problem, but it's a happy problem. I don't think he's too far away from joining the group."

McLeish also explained that the decision to leave Charles N'Zogbia and Carlos Cuellar on the bench in recent games was due to a lack of sharpness after their recovery from knee and thigh injuries respectively.

Villa should have head injury victims Ciaran Clark and Chris Herd available for the visit of Sunderland on Saturday while Marc Albrighton's thigh problem will be assessed later in the week.