Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert admits Gary Gardner is playing for his future.
The 21-year-old academy graduate has been dogged by injury troubles in recent times, severely restricting his involvement at first-team level.
Lambert told the Birmingham Mail: "He's trained the last few weeks now and he was on the bench at Liverpool.
"He's doing all right. It's hard for him to get in the side at the minute and he knows that himself, but he needs games that's for sure.
"He's out of contract in the summer and he's in the same boat as a few of the others.
"There's too many games to play to worry about that yet - it will be resolved in due course."
