Gabby Agbonlahor remains out of action for Aston Villa
Friday 8 April 2016 17:04, UK
Aston Villa remain without Gabby Agbonlahor as they attempt to preserve their Premier League status for a little longer.
Agbonlahor was set to be available against Bournemouth this weekend after missing last Saturday's defeat to Chelsea as a club punishment for his conduct during a recent trip to Dubai, where the 29-year-old forward was pictured apparently smoking a shisha pipe.
However, after training well for most of this week, the club revealed he is now suffering from virus and will miss out at Villa Park on Saturday.
"He (Agbonlahor) has not trained today (Friday) and I have taken him out of the squad because he is coming in to see the doctor. He phoned in this morning to say he was struggling with a virus," said interim manager Eric Black.
"It's a shame because he's been okay, I couldn't fault him for his attitude in training. What we have asked him to do he has done. He hasn't been a problem. But he has called in this morning saying he's feeling unwell."
Villa's fate has had an inevitable feel about it for many weeks but relegation can be mathematically sealed this weekend.
Bottom of the table and 15 points adrift of safety, Villa must match Norwich's result at Crystal Palace to earn a stay of execution.
Their opponents Bournemouth are just one of three teams that Villa have beaten this season in the Premier League.
That victory came on the opening day of the campaign courtesy of a Rudy Gestede header but much has changed since then.
Black said: "I remember Gestede's goal, on the first day. It was a great start and a great victory but things have conspired and we're bottom of the league and I'm not hiding from that fact.
"I'm a great believer in football that most of the time the work and the effort and due diligence you put in, you get 70-80 per cent of it back.
"We're in a position where we're not so let's try and solve the problems and I know that the people above are doing their utmost to try to ensure the club gets back where it should be."
