Now an unhappy Curbishley will discuss the incident with club chairman Richard Murray later today before deciding what further punishment to hand out to Todd.

Curbishley declined to reveal the other player involved in the incident, although he did admit that he was involved at Villa Park where Charlton slumped to a 1-0 defeat.

But it remains to be seen whether the enormous black eye spotted on the face of Charlton goalkeeper Dean Kiely as he left Villa Park last night was a related matter.

Curbishley confirmed: ‘‘There was a training ground incident on Tuesday and I left him (Andy Todd) at home. He was left at home as a disciplinary measure.

‘‘It was an unsavoury situation for us and I am very disappointed in it. It happens sometimes in football and it will be dealt with.

‘‘The incident happened just before we were leaving for the game with Villa, so I haven’t had a chance to sit down with the chairman or anyone else.

‘‘I also wanted to take time to assess the situation and sit down and think if there is anything else to be done on Thursday.

‘‘It was a football incident which unfortunately happens every now and then and it’s not nice when it does and we’ll have to act accordingly. I’m very disappointed with it.

‘‘The other player involved was here (at Villa), but I’m not prepared to name in because it is better kept in house.

‘‘Will he play for the club again? I don’t want to talk about that but I’ll talk to the people involved and we’ll make some sort of decision.’’

It is not the first time that Todd has been in hot water and he parted company with Bolton two years ago after a training ground punch-up with assistant boss Phil Brown.

The Todd incident overshadowed a game in which Charlton never moved out of second gear and the only surprise was that Villa managed just one goal through Hassan Kachloul his first for the club.

‘‘Our first-half performance was so poor that I was lost for words,’’ said Curbishley. ‘‘Villa set about us and gave us no time on the ball and our passing was poor.

‘‘I asked for a bit more at half-time and got that, but there was no life. It was just a poor performance and we deserved nothing from the game.’’

Villa should have killed off the match in the first half and it needed Kachloul’s ninth-minute close-range shot to settle the issue and lift them into third spot in the Barclaycard Premiership just one point adrift of leaders Leeds.

Gregory was delighted that his side bounced back from the weekend defeat at Everton, but he admitted: ‘‘It was a good first half and we did not have enough to show for it.

‘‘I don’t care who you are playing against, you cannot afford to take your foot off the gas and that was a big lesson for us. That game could have been lost in the last 15-20 minutes.

‘‘We had a lot of possession in the first half, but didn’t really use it well enough in the last third. That has often been a criticism of mine and that stood out above anything else.

‘‘But we are third in the league and psychologically if you look at the league table it gives a feel good factor to everyone.’’