Jack Grealish is rated no better than '50-50' by Aston Villa boss Dean Smith to face Wolves at Molineux on Sunday.
The playmaker, who was overlooked by England boss Gareth Southgate this week, missed last week's 2-1 home defeat by Liverpool with a calf injury, but was expected to be fit for the West Midlands derby.
Yet Grealish, having picked up the knock in the 3-0 loss at Manchester City last month, has not trained this week and Smith admits he must join in Saturday's session to have a chance of making his comeback.
Smith said: 'He is 50-50 at the moment. I expected him to be training by now but the bleed on his calf was a little bit bigger and he still has a lot of pain.
'The masseurs and physios are getting to work and he has another 24 hours to be fit. He is certainly physically OK as he has been doing an awful lot of work in the swimming pool, he just needs to make sure he can get through training.
'We are hopeful but it is a 50-50 one. It's frustrating because of the performance levels he is at right now.
'Jack will be disappointed he has not been selected for England but all he can do is keep working on what he is doing at Aston Villa at the moment.
'Football is a game of opinions and at the moment the opinion of the England staff is not to choose him. He can't control whether he is picked or not, so his job is to keep performing at the level he is and to keep pushing himself.
'If he doesn't go away with England then I have more time to work with him on the training ground here. I'd love him to be called up because in my opinion he deserves it, but it's not the opinion at the moment of the people who count.
'We hope he is fit for Sunday as he seems to relish the local games.'
