Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill admits he won't be rushing new signing Wayne Routledge into his starting XI.

O'Neill said: "If you get any injuries, then people start coming into play. For instance, he (Routledge) told me he'd done 46 consecutive days training at Tottenham without a problem and then got cramp in our reserve game!

"But we generally involve everyone in our squad so he's in there at this minute.

"Looking at the team, apart from the last result, they had gone eight games unbeaten and I want it to be hard to get into the side.

"I don't want someone to do two training sessions and say: 'Listen, I'm available!'"