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Mat Kendrick at the Birmingham Mail is reporting that Charles N'Zogbia won't be back in December, as Aston Villa originally thought. You may recall that N'Zogbia injured his achilles before the preseason even began, after he'd been given a new squad number and rumours were swirling that he'd be leaving soon. If the club had any desire to move N'Zogbia in the January transfer window, this news likely kills that idea, as the midfielder won't return until January at the earliest.
N'Zogbia showed a few flashes of skill last season, but he's never been the player that Aston Villa thought they were getting when they paid £9.5 million to Wigan for him in the summer of 2011. Nevertheless, given the sorry state of Aston Villa's midfield, one would think that Paul Lambert would like to at least have another option there. Barring that, if N'Zogbia were healthy, he'd likely fetch £1-2 million on the transfer market with which Lambert could find some more midfield help.
But the real takeaway from this is that a player that you'd probably forgotten about will continue to stay on the barest fringes of the club and its fans' collective consciousness. Maybe once he's well he'll actually be able to help out, but to be honest, I've pretty much given up on that idea.