Gabriel Agbonlahor suspended as Aston Villa investigate shisha pipe incident

Agbonlahor will not play against Chelsea this weekend amid reports that he was caught smoking a shisha pipe while on the trip during the international break.

Villa tweeted that the 29-year-old will not feature while the internal investigation is underway and, as a result, will miss at least the Chelsea match.

The Villa forward was photographed appearing to hold a shisha pipe while on his holiday.

Agbonlahor has only made 15 Premier League appearances for the Premier League's bottom club so far this season.

Villa are without a manager after Remi Garde left the club by mutual consent on Tuesday having served just 147 days in charge.

First-team coach Eric Black has taken over as acting manager until the club find a full-time replacement.

Villa are clearly very keen to not allow this story to distract any of the players or staff for the Chelsea match on Saturday and have attempted to put an end to the talk with this suspension. However, the season is surely already over for the club given that they are still 12 points adrift of safety with just seven games remaining. The attention must now be focused on who is going to replace Garde, whether it be Nigel Pearson, David Moyes or another manager able and willing to take the club back up from the Championship.