Villan Agbonlahor winning his fitness battle to face Reading

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Agbonlahor was forced to pull out of the England squad to face Switzerland with a hamstring injury and also missed Villa's 4-1 win over Newcastle a fortnight ago.

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Yes, I've done it: Agbonlahor looks to have won his fitness battle

But the academy product is back in training and in contention to face the Royals.

Agbonlahor had been Villa's leading scorer with seven goals but in his absence has been taken over by John Carew, whose hat-trick against the Magpies took his seasonal tally to nine.

Villa manager Martin O'Neill said: "Gabby is fine. He has done a little bit of training. The pitches were too frosty on Tuesday but he did some training indoors. That was the first day he had joined in with us.

"Hopefully he will now get in a full spell of training and then we will see how he is. He has been raring to go now and has been for some days.

"We didn't let him join in in any of the training sessions during our short break in Malaga but that was purely precautionary."

Central defender Martin Laursen has recovered from a heel injury and will be available for the clash at the Madejski Stadium.

O'Neill said: "Martin is okay. His heel has improved. He just needed to take a bit of time out which he has done."