By Paul Brown

Alex McLeish has revealed Gabby Agbonlahor is fit again and in fine form ahead of the Wigan encounter.

Agbonlahor missed the QPR, Newcastle and Manchester City games with a troublesome back/hamstring injury.

But McLeish told AVTV that the fab forward is now back in full training and looking sharp in readiness for Saturday's encounter at the DW Stadium.

Villa boss McLeish said Agbonlahor is desperate to get that claret and blue shirt on again, starting at Wigan.

He said: "Gabby is training. That's great news.

"He looked great in training on Tuesday. He eased himself into training on Monday.

"But he was tremendous on Tuesday and looked really, really sharp.

"He's bursting to get that Villa jersey on again.

"He had a lull with the injury. It would be great to have him on fire again.

"Defences throughout the Barclays Premier League fear him, no doubt about that.

"They fear Gabby when he's in the mood.

"We are no different to any other team in that if you are missing your top players it can be a big miss.

"If you look at Manchester United then I'm sure Sir Alex doesn't want to be losing Wayne Rooney and it is the same here with us and Gabby.

"He is one of the top players at this football club, is feared throughout the Barclays Premier League and is always a threat because of his pace and they way he imposes himself on a game.

"There have been a few games where he was a little quiet - the Manchester United game at Villa Park was one - but if he imposes himself every defender in the country would be frightened of Gabby.

"He has been here the longest as well and he's a die-hard Villa fan to boot."

McLeish also revealed that Agbonlahor has embarked on a new fitness programme with sports science head Adrian Lamb as the medical staff look to strengthen the star striker's back.

He continued: "It's one we are trying to manage and strengthen - that back area where the problem is coming from.

"So he's got a new plan with fitness coach Adrian and he'll get stronger in the right areas so he doesn't have these problems in the future."

McLeish revealed Ciaran Clark [knee] is expected to be out for up to a month while Richard Dunne [shoulder] is still on track on his road to recovery.

He also spoke of his fears that Fabian Delph [ankle] could be out for the rest of the season after returning from his loan at Leeds.

In better news, McLeish was thrilled to see Chris Herd [ankle] back in the fray in a 60-minute appearance against West Brom reserves.

Herd returned to training last week after a two-month lay-off but the Baggies clash was his first competitive action since December.

McLeish was delighted to see the all-action midfield ace on duty.

He added: "It was great to see Chris back and fit again.

"It's still probably difficult to judge if he can come right into the pace of the game at Barclays Premier League level but such is the way the squad is stretched at the moment we have to consider that."

McLeish was talking as part of his regular weekly one-on-one with AVTV at Bodymoor Heath.

As always AVTV were on hand to record the manager's comments and you can watch the video interview now.

Click here to watch the interview on AVTV.

This article provides only a small snapshot of his comments.

He also discussed:

Carlos Cuellar
Cleveland Browns visit
Centre-back position
Chris Herd
Richard Dunne

Click here to watch the interview on AVTV.