Stiliyan Petrov visited the Aston Villa dressing room before their match with Chelsea on Saturday to try to motivate his teammates, according to full back Eric Lichaj.

The young defender was on the scoresheet during Villa's 4-2 loss, which came just a day after their Bulgarian captain was diagnosed with acute leukaemia.

Villa boss Alex McLeish said that the players would attempt to use Petrov's illness as a motivation before the game and now Lichaj has revealed that the man himself visited the dressing room prior to kick-off.

"Stan came into the dressing room beforehand. It is never easy when you hear news like that about someone you play with all the time," said Lichaj.

"It can happen to anyone, just like with Fabrice Muamba the other week. You don't really know what to say or to do and just hope he makes a full recovery.

"Stan was in a good mood before the game, just trying to motivate us, being his normal self. That's how he is, an uplifting guy, a great captain, and it's sad what has happened."

Petrov signed for the West Midlands club from Celtic in 2006.