PLAYER PROFILE

Martin Laursen

Position: Defence

Height: 6'3

Weight: 13st 1lbs

Date of Birth: 1977-02-26 Silkeborg, Denmark

Martin Laursen

In May 2004 Aston Villa signed Denmark defender Martin Laursen from AC Milan for £3million.

Laursen moved to England after falling out of favour at the San Siro following the acquisition of Alessandro Nesta two years ago.

He remains a key member of the Denmark team, however, and will travel to Portugal for Euro 2004.

Capped 33 times for Denmark, Laursen has also turned out for Silkeborg, Verona and Parma. He had also been linked with Tottenham, Middlesbrough, Feyenoord and Charlton.

Most Villa fans got their first chance to see him in action for Denmark in Euro 2004, playing in front of his new team-mate Thomas Sorensen, and they won't have been disappointed by his solid performances.

However, his 2004/05 season was wrecked by a knee ligament injury suffered in August 2004 which kept him out of action until March 2005.

On his return to the team, however, he proved his worth to the fans by scoring the opener in a 2-0 victory against Middlesborough.

He made only 12 appearances all in all in that season and could only add one more in 05/06. His bad luck with injuries continued in 2006/07 and it seems unlikely that he will remain at Villa Park for very long.