After coming through the ranks at Aston Villa and having spent almost a decade with the club, it looks like Gabriel Agbonlahor’s time at Villa Park may be coming to an end.

The number of first-team appearances for the forward has been considerably reduced this season. The 29-year-old has featured in only eight matches across all competitions. He is yet to score in the league, but such a position will apply to many of the Villa players given the poor form. Scoring goals has been a major problem for the club and it continues unabated even after the arrival of Remi Garde.

The Frenchman has failed to improve the form of the club. This coupled with the rivals picking up points has been Villa already cut off by several points from the team’s fighting against relegation. Agbonlahor is contracted to Villa until the summer of 2018, but he has struggled with injury problems in recent years. Right now, he is sidelined due to a back problem and Garde refused to answer questions about a new contract for the player. He says that if Agbonlahor approaches him with a request to leave, he will not stand in the way. Garde has been looking to bring in forwards like Loic Remy in the January transfer window.

“For the moment Gabby is not training. He is struggling with his back so I can’t tell you more about that (his future).As I told you previously sometimes when there is - how can I say? - if a player wants to leave or if he comes to me and says I want to leave I will have a discussion with every player in that situation because we need players who believe in the project and who believe in the possibility to be safe.I tell you that but Gabby for the moment is injured. This is the main problem for me about Gabby,” said Garde.