Aston Villa defender James Collins has been placing a slice of steak in his boot during training in attempt to aid his recovery from a foot injury.

The centre-back was forced to withdraw from the Wales squad for their Euro 2012 qualifiers against Switzerland last Friday and Bulgaria this evening.

Villa's assistant boss Peter Grant has revealed that the club's medical staff had tried putting a thick slice of steak in the 28-year-old sock to enable him to participate in training ahead of Saturday's match with Manchester City.

"We were panicking a bit with James because he had injured his foot and it was quite bad, it was like an elephant's foot. He was training with a steak in his boot believe it or not!" said Grant.

"We thought we would try it because it has been used in Germany recently. He didn't play with it, because we were worried it might get a bit hot and start cooking!"

Collins joined Villa in 2009 from West Ham United.