O'Neill hoping Villa stars come through internationals unscathed
Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill admits he becomes fraught with worry every time his players go away on international duty.
Former Northern Ireland international O'Neill has a constant fear his stars will return to Villa Park with injuries sustained while appearing for their countries.
His plans have already been affected this season - with Emile Heskey suffering a reaction to an Achilles injury during the February friendly in Spain, which forced him to miss the FA Cup tie at Everton.
Several Villa players - including Heskey and Gareth Barry, both in the England squad, and James Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor, who received England Under-21s call-ups - are set for action in the coming week.
O'Neill will watch and keep his fingers crossed that all his players return safe and sound, and he identifies international weeks as a troubling time.
"As a club manager, I've only ever looked at it with in trepidation - concern that players will come back injured," O'Neill. "We had the situation a few weeks ago where Emile Heskey played .125for England.375 and came back injured, so we had to go to Everton without him.
"It's still possible to win games. But we lost that FA Cup match, which meant we missed out on the quarter-finals.
"We could have gone there with Heskey and still been beaten. But things can happen, and they do happen. It's a long time away for them, and we do worry. But we're not the only club with these problems."
O'Neill knows any serious injuries to his players would be a major blow to Villa's hopes of returning to the top four in the Barclays Premier League - and claims it would be "ridiculous" if his team fail to put up a fight in their battle with Arsenal for fourth place.
Villa have lost their place in the top four after a drastic slump in form, allowing Arsene Wenger's team to make up ground and open up a three-point lead over them.
O'Neill still hopes Villa can raise the level of their performances, and clinch a Champions League place. He said: "We are not out of it, and I think when the players come back from international duty we can refocus from then to the end of the season and get the requisite number of wins that would get us there.
"We should not throw this up without a fight. We have battled far too long - all season - and to go out with a whimper would be ridiculous."
Villa have taken just one point from their last five league matches, and O'Neill believes the size of his squad compared to the teams occupying the top four places may have been a factor in their poor run.
"There's no question that Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have enormous strength in depth," said O'Neill. "Those teams can lose top-quality players for a significant number of weeks and not really lose a lot of ground.
"It's no surprise that those four teams are all contesting the quarter-finals of the Champions League. If there's a lesson to be learned, then getting a squad with strength in depth is one."
