Aston Villa have tried everything to fix James Collins' foot injury.

The Villa defender, 28, is battling to be fit for Saturday's clash with Manchester City after a foot problem kept him out of the Wales squad for their Euro 2012 qualifiers against Switzerland and Bulgaria.

Club medics even tried slipping a thick slice of meat into Collins' boot so that he could take part in training while undergoing treatment.

Villa No 2 Peter Grant explained: "We were panicking a bit with James because his foot was quite bad.

"It was like an elephant's foot and, believe it or not, he was training with a steak in his boot!

"We thought we'd try it because it has been used in Germany recently.

"He didn't play with it, because we were worried it might get a bit hot and start cooking!"