Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill will be sweating on a telephone call from Crystal Palace today over on-loan Gabor Kiraly after being given a fresh concern over his goalkeeping situation.

The Hungarian international has played the last three matches for Villa after joining on an emergency loan following knee injuries to No 1 Thomas Sorensen and his deputy Stuart Taylor.

But Palace manager Peter Taylor has been in touch with Villa to warn them that he might have to recall Kiraly to cover his own injury crisis at Selhurst Park.

Kiraly may be needed back by Palace following a groin injury to their regular No 1 Julian Speroni, which ruled him out of their Boxing Day defeat at Southampton.

Taylor was forced to play young Scott Flinders, with rookie David Wilkinson on the bench - not a scenario the Palace boss wants to risk again for his relegationthreatened side. And he has admitted: "I am looking at the situation where I might bring Gabor back."

Thankfully for Villa, the word from south London last night was that Speroni's injury situation might have eased sufficiently to allow him to play for Palace. But if he doesn't improve and Kiraly has to go back, it will leave O'Neill with three courses of action before Villa's own big date in south London tomorrow with Alan Pardew's Charlton Athletic.

He can try to bring in another loan 'keeper at short notice, he can risk bringing back either of his two regular 'keepers Sorensen and Taylor, or he can hand a debut to untried 20-year-old Austrian Robert Olejnik, who has been on the Villa bench for the past month.

Olejnik's training partner Taylor says the young man they call 'The Beast' can cope. "Robert is a fantastic goalkeeper with plenty of ability," Taylor said.

"I am sure when he's eventually called up for first-team action he will do a good job."

O'Neill already has severe injury problems for The Valley after four players suffered fresh injuries in the 2-1 Boxing Day defeat at Tottenham, on top of the six men he already had out.

One of those, Mark Delaney, is becoming increasingly concerned about his future after his failure to recover from his latest knee injury.

The 30-year-old Welsh international has suffered abominable luck with injuries throughout his eight seasons with Villa.

But, with his contract due to end this summer, and having not kicked a ball for O'Neill, he is starting to fear the worst after being told he will not return until February at the earliest.

"I'm not happy with the knee," said Delaney, whose only appearance this season was in a Wales shirt against the Czech Republic in September.

"Maybe it still needs more time. But I'm coming to the end of my contract so the timing could not have been worse."

One piece of comforting news for O'Neill is that 19-year-old midfielder Isaiah Osbourne has become the latest of Villa's promising talents to commit his future to the club.

Osbourne has impressed since making his first-team breakthrough in October. He is set to follow the lead set by Liam Ridgewell, Gary Cahill and Gabriel Agbonlahor last summer by signing a three-and-a-half year deal today. There is no doubt Isaiah has got potential," O'Neill said, "and I've been very pleased with him."