Gabriel Agbonlahor has claimed he "hates" former boss Roberto Di Matteo over his treatment of Stiliyan Petrov.
Former England striker Agbonlahor spent his entire career at Aston Villa besides two short loan spells away as a teenager.
There he was teammates with former Celtic star Petrov, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2012.
Petrov had to part with football to fight the deadly illness but he aimed to get back playing after a remarkable recovery.
However, Champions League winning manager Di Matteo did not offer the Bulgarian a contract and Agbonlahor insists he will never forget it.
Speaking to ThreesixtyTV, he said: "I'll hate him for the rest of my life for that. Any other manager with a single bit of heart would have given him a pay-as-you-play (contract).
"There's a month, or there's six months, let's see how you are. To be so ruthless and heartless to not even give him a chance, you know what I mean?
"Imagine you come back from that horrific disease, you've got yourself fit, you've lost all this weight that you've put on through your treatment.
"You've come back, you've done every run that the 19-year-olds have done in pre-season and you can't give me anything? Do you know what I mean?"
"I just said to Di Matteo, 'What are you doing? How can you not…'
"Even to this day, words can't describe him. If I ever see Di Matteo, I'll tell him: 'You're a wasteman for not giving him something.'"
