If you ask any Aston Villa fan who they feel has had the worst luck in the past three years I guarantee you that 90% of them would suggest that Gary Gardner has been by far the unluckiest.

Gardner turned professional in 2011 and made his debut for the first-team under Alex McLeish in a 3-1 victory at Stamford Bridge in late December. That season looked to be the big breakthrough year for the youngster with Gardner in superb form in the NextGen series where he finished as the joint highest scorer as Villa lifted the crown.

Fans were convinced that he was something special unlike his brother Craig – who is somewhat hated amongst the Villa faithful.

During his time in the Villa academy, Gardner had developed a reputation for his goalscoring exploits from midfield catching many admirers. Injuries have since hindered his progress at Villa and Gardner now finds himself much further down the pecking order than fans ever expected.

Back in 2009, Gardner spent a painfully long spell out on the sideline with an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his knee. If that wasn’t bad enough, in the summer of 2012 Gardner suffered the same injury – keeping him out for eight months.

Much to the fans delight Gardner returned towards the back end of Paul Lambert’s first season at Villa Park. There was much optimism under a manager like Lambert that Gardner would grow into the player the Villa faithful knew he could be. Unfortunately, that was never forthcoming under the Scot.

The former-England youth international has spent plenty of time away from Villa Park on loan at various clubs firstly at Coventry City in 2011 then in the past two years at Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton & Hove Albion, and finally Nottingham Forest. The latter two loan spells in the 2014/15 season were his most successful days as a professional footballer to date – taking part in 76% of the potential games in the Championship. He also found the net six times.

Gardner proved himself to be a dynamo in the heart of midfield laying on goals as well as scoring them. His performances at the City Ground left Forest fans purring and left Villa fans wondering whether, under Tim Sherwood, Gardner would finally get his chance to shine.

This summer brought more agony for Gardner who was in fine pre-season form. A crunching tackle in Villa’s friendly against Swindon Town has left him on the sidelines ever since.

More recently, Gardner penned a new three-year deal at Villa Park. It will be interesting to see if Gardner can finally make it as a regular at Aston Villa. He has the ability, but you have to hope that he will finally get a chance under Sherwood to show what he can do on the biggest stage of them all.