Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has urged midfielder Shaun Maloney to get his head down and build a career at Villa Park.

Reports in Scotland claimed Maloney was on minutes away from a return to Celtic before a last-minute hitch scuppered the move.

But O'Neill hit back: "That's absolutely not true - I've never received a phone call from Celtic about Shaun Maloney, ever.

"I don't know where it came from. But I understand the story doesn't read so great if it doesn't happen.

"The stories were mentioned to me on Monday and I saw the comments attributed to Shaun.

"It's absolutely no different to what he has already said to me.

"I'm not here to imprison anybody, but by the same token, people sign contracts and for the most part, unless they've been really hard done by, they have to abide by these things."