O'Leary banking on Ridgewell stamina
Aston Villa manager David O’Leary is keeping his fingers crossed that rookie defender Liam Ridgewell can stand up to the demands of playing four games in eight days during the festive programme.
Ridgewell clocked up his 50th first team appearance for Villa in the home Premiership encounter with Manchester United last weekend which meant West Ham were entitled to £350,000 (€513,000) as part of his move from Upton Park as a 16-year-old.
O’Leary would dearly like to be able to temporarily withdraw the England Under-21 player from the firing line and give him a well earned break from the action.
But the Villa chief has no other options given that Martin Laursen, skipper Olof Mellberg and Gary Cahill are currently injured -and full-back Aaron Hughes was employed alongside Ridgewell against the Red Devils.
O’Leary told PA Sport: “What can I do? I’ve been able to rest Steven Davis on the odd occasion because I’ve got Eirik Bakke in there in midfield.
“I’d love to have been doing the same with Ridgewell but I’ve got no-one else. When I started here I had Olof Mellberg, Alpay, Steve Staunton, Dion Dublin and Ronny Johnsen.
“Four of them are gone and now Olof is injured so we’ve been left with a young player in Ridgewell at present.
“We brought in Martin Laursen but he has hardly played so we’ve been operating for a good while with two centre-halfs so the young lad (Ridgewell) has had to keep playing.
“I hope he is available for four games in eight days because we are right in trouble if he is not because I haven’t got a clue who we can play there if he is missing.
“Last week we had a full-back (Hughes) operating there and that’s all we have got. The back four is the back four we will have to go with for the four games.”
