Coventry City manager Andy Thorn has said that he was grateful to Aston Villa for loaning Gary Gardner to the Sky Blues.
Gardner has returned to Villa Park after his 28 day loan expired and speaking about him returning to a Villa side which has injuries as well as wanting him for the next round of the NextGen Cup in which he hit a hat-trick against Ajax in Villa's last match, Thorn told the CT: “It’s very disappointing for us but I must admit I was expecting it – Alex has had a dreadful run of injuries and he obviously has to put his own club first.
“We’re very grateful that he allowed Gary to come here and I would love to think that Villa’s problems will clear up over Christmas and Alex will decide that he can spare him again some time in the future.
“But we obviously can’t count on that and we will just have to mix and match with what we’ve got."