Villa face Sunderland on Saturday in the Barclays Premier League and O'Neill has no specialist right-back after selling Aaron Hughes to Fulham in the summer and then seeing Mark Delaney forced into retirement because of his long-term knee problem.

The former Glasgow Celtic manager has been using central defender Olof Mellberg in the role for the majority of the campaign.

However, Mellberg is suspended against the Black Cats after his red card against Portsmouth while Gardner, who occupied the role at the start of the season, missed the defeat at Fratton Park with a back injury.

But the England Under-21 player has returned to training and is looking likely to be ready to tackle Roy Keane's side.

O'Neill said: "Craig should be alright. He was really sore before the Portsmouth game. He had to come off at half-time against Middlesbrough and his back had basically seized up. But he looks like he is going to be okay and I've been really pleased with him.

"He's a midfielder but there is nothing to prevent him thinking he can play in that position (right-back). It's a position that, when going forward, he is pretty comfortable with.

"The defensive side of things he's got to learn about and that would be the case even if he was playing centre midfield. But he offers us more going forward from right-back and is a great striker of the ball. He has shown that with a couple of free-kicks he has scored this season and his performance when he came on against Newcastle was excellent."