Injured Players Make Friendly Return

Milan Baros, who played 60 minutes in his return from an ankle injury picked up at the World Cup for the Czech Republic, scored in a behind closed doors friendly against Lincoln City yesterday.

Lee Hendrie bagged a brace and Sam Williams also got on the score sheet.

Other players returning from injury were Wilfred Bouma and Martin Laursen who both managed the full match, and Patrik Berger who had 60 minutes.

Assistant manager John Robertson told the official site ‘It was definitely a useful exercise. We don’t have a reserve game this week and we wanted to bring a few of the lads back. You can have all the training in the world but there is no substitute for match action and this game served a purpose for us and Lincoln.’

Baros said ‘It was good. I felt OK and I’m just getting my fitness back now. I was happy to be out there playing again. I’ve trained for around two weeks, but nothing compares to playing in games. That is the only way to be at your best. It’s not been easy to be out. The World Cup was frustrating and then to be injured with the new manager coming into Villa has been very hard.’

Adding: ‘But I’m fit now and hopefully I will soon be back in action for the first-team. I think it is hard to say I will start at West Ham, but I would love to be on the bench and play some part. I will make myself available and then it is up to the manager.’

He is also looking forward to being back in the thick of the action: ‘This is an exciting time for the club. It looked like I was going to move this summer, but we have a new owner and a new manager. I can see this club is showing ambition and I decided to stay because I want to play a part in the exciting times at Villa. We have started the season well. It is not easy to get seven points from nine, especially when one of the games is at Arsenal away. Now I want to get back into action and hopefully I can help Aston Villa continue the good start to the season.’