Aston Villa midfielder Craig Gardner is set to miss the games against Manchester United, Bolton Wanderers and Derby due to thigh problem suffered on the England U-21 duty.

Villa boss Martin O’Neill, revealing the setback, has also criticised the handling of the incident after Gardner had informed of the injury in the first half of Tuesday’s friendly with Poland at Molineux, but England Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce kept him on.

O’Neill told avfc.co.uk: “It’s a thigh injury. I don’t know whether there were plans for him to come off at half-time in the under-21 game or not.

“But Craig did complain about the injury with 20 minutes to go in the first half.

“He made it clear that his thigh was particularly sore and it’s disappointing that he had to stay on the field for the rest of the time.

“Now he misses some games for us.”