Dunne: Set for the sidelines

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Villa suffer Dunne injury blow

Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne is expected to be out for at least a month after injuring his shoulder in the 1-0 loss to Manchester City.

The Republic of Ireland international fell awkwardly in stoppage time of the Villa Park tie, which was decided by Joleon Lescott’s 64th minute effort.

Villans boss Alex McLeish confirmed the news after the game.

“(Dunne) is not going to be back for the next game, that’s for sure,” he said. “I don’t know at this moment exactly what’s happened but he’s definitely damaged his shoulder.

“I do believe he is going to be out for at least a month.”

McLeish, who is under increasing pressure as Villa flirt with relegation, feels his men were desperately unlucky to go down on Sunday.

“We had a game plan and I thought the players did really well in executing that. If you open up early and you leave yourself wide open against City they will destroy you,” he said.

“You saw Everton’s tactics a couple of weeks ago, very similar to what we deployed tonight. And you’ve got to keep City at nil to have a chance to win the game.

“I think we were the unluckiest team in the league this weekend.”