"He had his cartilage trimmed so he'll be out for a few weeks," said Martin O'Neill. "It is better sorting it out now than waiting around. He's had terrible luck." Delaney has not yet started for the club under the new Villa manager and with his contract ending next summer, his future appears to be in doubt. "I think that everything will depend on him playing pretty regularly in the first team, which he is capable of doing," O'Neill added. "A fit Mark Delaney would be an asset to us."