Stewart Downing hopes to make his Aston Villa Football Club during the festive period.

Martin O’Neill spent £12million to take the winger from Middlesbrough in the summer, despite the player carrying a foot injury which required an operation.

Downing has been stepping up his rehabilitation of late, and he has revealed he hopes to be in first team contention during the month of December.

"I'll hopefully be back training in mid-November and then looking to play within a month of that,” he said. "The specialist has been telling me what to do from day one.

“I had been doing straight line running because I couldn't do twisting and turning. But I can do a bit of that now as well so fitness-wise it's just a case of building things up.

"The toughest bit was the first bit when I was on crutches but now the hard work is done and all those long days slogging away in the gym have been worth it.

"Having the pin removed was a big part of my recovery because that would show it (the foot) was fully recovered. Now it is just a case of stepping things up."

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