Martin Laursen’s arrival was so low-key you could have been forgiven for thinking Villa had signed a new ballboy.

Following a swift medical, the £3million defender was introduced to a smattering of reporters who had gathered at The Belfry Hotel, in Wishaw.

Manager David O’Leary was elsewhere. Perhaps the Irishman had wanted better than the 26-year-old Dane, who had been capped 33-times and had previously cost AC Milan £8.7million from Parma after just two training sessions.

Certainly O’Leary’s comments a few months later would suggest as much.

“I’m not talking top of the range, but he fitted in with our budget,” said the Villa manager.

Laursen was by no means an unknown quantity – 12 months earlier he had turned down Wolves and then-Villa boss Graham Taylor had scouted him before the 2002 World Cup.

“I recommended him to the board but at the time we had Alpay and also had the Bosko Balaban situation,” said Taylor. “I thought he would be a good acquisition but it never got that far.”

Taylor signed Ronny Johnsen on a free transfer instead.

Laursen, a boyhood Milan fan, had become frustrated behind Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta and Antonio Costacurta. The arrival of Jaap Stam from Manchester United would curtail his chances further.

“After six years in Italy, I feel ready to go to the Premier League,” he said after rejecting Feyenoord. “I am hungry. I want to test myself and to try to do well in England.”

The aim in 2004 for Villa was exactly what it remains today – European qualification.

Despite having made only three league starts for Milan during that last season, national coach Morten Olsen was convinced that Villa had pulled off a coup.

“Laursen doesn’t make any mistakes. He never does in the national squad. He is a very wise player and he still gets enough matches in Milan,” Olsen said.

His debut in a 2-1 friendly defeat at Walsall gave no hint of the impact he would make in years to come, .

“I don’t want to be horrible but I thought Laursen looked a bit shaky,” said Walsall boss Paul Merson. But his league debut in a win over Southampton was impressive.

Disaster struck when, following a 3-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic, he was ruled out for more than six months after seeing American surgeon Dr Richard Steadman.

“It was my first serious injury as a footballer,” bemoaned Laursen.

He returned the following March against Middlesbrough, producing a man-of-the-match display capped with the opening goal. But the warning signs were blaring in March 2005.

“I’ve a serious cartilage problem,” he said. “It makes me think of the future.”

Laursen returned and played nine games at the end of that first season. He spent the summer of 2005 preparing to marry his actress girlfriend, Marianna Dal Collo.

He was handed a strict training schedule and was soon proclaiming: ‘‘I will be fit for the start of pre-season. I am very positive.’’

But on the eve of his 28th birthday in July, having failed to play any part in the club’s tour of Sweden, Laursen flew home for treatment.

A month later, having played the opening league game against Bolton Wanderers, he went to Colorado for a second knee operation.

“It is a big blow for me but the knee is not good. It needs help,” said a dejected Laursen.

O’Leary bought Freddie Bouma from PSV Eindhoven and, by October 2005, had ruled Laursen out for the remainder of that season.

Laursen spent a year in Bologna working his way back to fitness.

“I was happy Villa understood it was important for me to go away and not be depressed here,” he said.

But he was consumed with self doubt. “There were moments when I did not think I would be able to play again,” he said.

“The surgeon could not say 100 per cent that I would come back. He said it was 80 per cent so that was the hard part.”

The first eight weeks he spent on crutches and, for eight hours a day, his leg was in a machine. “It was a nightmare,” he said.

Back at Villa, O’Leary was sacked and replaced by Martin O’Neill, all this at a time when Laursen could not yet kick a ball.

However, he took to O’Neill immediately.

“From day one, he told me I just had to do my best and see how I progressed,’’ he said. “It was a big motivation for me to come back and prove I am part of the future for him at Villa.’’

By August 2006, Laursen was back. At The Emirates Stadium, in O’Neill’s first game, he replaced Juan Pablo Angel for the final two minutes of a remarkable draw against Arsenal.

The following month, he was starting at West Ham United and was soon a regular fixture of the team. But his jinx returned with a medial knee ligament injury suffered at Chelsea.

O’Neill said: “The only consolation is that it’s the other knee. You have to feel great sympathy for him because he has worked so hard to get back to fitness. Although

this has been really sickening for him, he is capable of bouncing back again as he has shown before. He is as brave as a lion.”

Laursen returned in March 2007 at Fulham, his eighth game under O’Neill, and was by now viewing a make-or-break season ahead.

“It has been frustrating because, in three years, I haven’t played enough,” he said. “It irritates me that I haven’t been able to give more back.”

Give more back is exactly what he did. The following season, 2007/08, was glorious.

Despite the arrival of Curtis Davies and Zat Knight, he became an automatic choice. He was simply irreplaceable.

O’Neill found himself repeating the “Heart of a Lion” metaphor after a gutsy performance at Newcastle in August.

“He is a very brave boy; when you think of the problems he has been through with his knee, it is amazing he is even able to play Premier League football. He is vital to us,” gushed the manager.

By October, he was scoring twice at White Hart Lane in a memorable 4-4 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

“I feel as though this is the best spell of my Villa career and possibly the best I’ve been playing since I was at Milan,” Laursen reflected.

By New Year’s Day, his luck appeared to have changed.

Laursen scored the winner, his fifth goal of the season, in a 2-1 win over Tottenham to push Villa to sixth place. Finally, after months of talking, a new two-and-a-half year deal was signed.

Laursen stayed ever-present throughout that league campaign and was deservedly voted the Supporters’ Player of the Year. The summer saw him take over the club captaincy from Gareth Barry and all looked rosy.

But then came another injury, at West Ham in December. One more appearance later, against Albion the following month, and another knee operation was necessary.

He then broke down on a training camp in Dubai in March and faced 12 months on the sidelines and yet another operation.

Finally, today he admitted he had lost his battle and announced his retirement from the game he had graced.

Few Villa supporters would argue that his influence both as a player, a leader and a genuine nice guy will be sadly missed.

> Martin Laursen photo gallery