Cuellear won’t make Villa debut against Hafnarfjordur

Aston Villa head into the second leg of their 2008 UEFA Europa League 2nd qualifying round tie against Hafnarfjordur with a commanding 3 goal lead.

Unfortunately for Villa fans, they will have to wait until the weekend for the unveiling of new signing Carlos Cuellar, who has been out of action with a calf injury since being purchased from Rangers for £7.8 million.

“Carlos is doing well. It would have been great if he had been able to play a game before Sunday,” Martin O’Neill told reporters. “I wish he had been eligible to play . But he is making good progress. He has been training with us over the last two or three days and been doing really fine. He has done a lot of running as well.”

While O’Neill will be heading into tonight’s UEFA Europa League fixture without Cuellar, he’ll be more than happy to have the services of Gareth Barry at his dispoal, after Barry’s proposed transfer to Liverpool fell through. Barry is expected to play at left-back to shore up a defence that has proved somewhat leaky in early season matches.