Vassell DIY leads to disaster
The 22-year-old England star attempted to burst the blister underneath his toe with a drill, but his antics have now back-fired and ruled him out of Sunday's clash.
"He really shouldn't have been trying to sort the problem out himself," admitted Villa boss Graham Taylor.
"There are people on the staff readily available to have treated the problem.
"Darius tried to get the blood out himself, which he now realises was not really advisable.
"I am not certain he looks after his feet properly. It was giving him pain and it seems he used a medical implement to try to drill the nail.
"The outcome was it still caused him pain and was infected.
"He's now had half the nail removed and that's left him struggling to be fit for the Blackburn game. But he should be okay next week."
Vassell now misses the chance of playing against former Villa hero Dwight Yorke and Taylor admitted that a 'gut-feeling' prevented him making a bid to bring him back to Villa Park before he joined Blackburn from Manchester United earlier this eason.
"I just had a gut-feeling that it was not the right move," said Taylor, who first brought the Trinidad and Tobago international to England.
"Obviously when I first came back that was the one that was going to happen, but whilst I could imagine people talking about it I was never certain in my gut that it was the real thing to do, so when that happens you leave it alone. Which we did, but good-luck to him.
"I wasn't really close to re-signing him, no. I know that he would have come, and I know that Dwight would very much have liked to sign for me back here, but I felt that time had moved on a little bit now.
"We'll never know because I didn't sign him, but I didn't necessarily feel then that it was going to be to everybody's advantage- not just Dwight's.
"I know he would have come back and perhaps in one respect it is probably a shame that it didn't happen, but you can't let those kind of friendships influence what you feel in your gut.
"I just had this feeling that I wasn't so certain it would be right for everybody and I felt it best to leave it alone.
"He and I go back a lot of years, but time moves on. You're talking about a 30-year-old man now, the Dwight I worked with was a 17-year-old boy. Now he's 30 and has to make his own decisions.
"He's a very, very talented player, and I know that the spell he had here at Villa he was a very, talented player- no doubt about that."
