Collins jets out with Villa

Defender gets green light after scan on calf

Last updated: 28th July 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Collins jets out with Villa

Collins: Calf concern

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James Collins has been given the green light to jet out to Portugal with the rest of the Aston Villa squad.

The centre-back suffered an injury scare in Tuesday night's friendly at Walsall when he was taken off after just three minutes complaining of a calf problem.

Wales international Collins has endured a frustrating pre-season programme which has been punctuated by a series of niggling injuries.

But he was cleared to fly out for the weekend matches with Feyenoord on Saturday and Benfica 24 hours later after undergoing scans earlier on Wednesday.

Collins was a major figure for Villa last season after his £5million move from West Ham and formed a solid partnership with Richard Dunne.

Blow

With Curtis Davies available for transfer if the price is right, Villa boss Martin O'Neill will not want to be without the services of Collins for the start of the Premier League campaign.

O'Neill said: "James' pre-season has been kind of stop-start. A couple of niggling things he picked up along the way, he hasn't been able to shake off.

"You don't want them to get any more serious.

"James had felt his calf a little bit in the warm-up, but decided to go ahead with it and lasted less than a minute of the game. That was obviously a blow to him."

England midfielder James Milner - a target for Manchester City - was also part of the squad after holding talks with O'Neill on Monday.

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