Scott Carson's future will not be decided until the end of the season, according to Martin O'Neill, the Aston Villa manager.

The on-loan Liverpool goalkeeper has spent the season at Villa Park, and after overcoming a crisis of confidence following his nightmare England debut in November, has helped the club challenge for a top-five finish in the Premier League. The 22-year-old is keen to clear up doubts surrounding his future, after similar loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton, however, O'Neill says any deal will have to wait.

"We have Scott until the end of the season and when we talked about it in the first place, there was no decision going to be made one way or another until the end of the season," he said. "Now, of course, if someone does very well then there is talk about 'can you hurry this on?' or if someone is not doing so cleverly then the talk is 'well, what are you doing about it?'

"That is a natural question for people to ask me - but an unnatural one to answer. I will wait until the end of the season. Liverpool are heavily involved now in competitions so we will wait and then all parties will sit down.

"Liverpool have not come on the phone asking 'what are you doing?' and I have not gone on to them and said 'what are you thinking?' We are prepared to leave it. With all the hullabaloo surrounding Liverpool at the moment, I would have been surprised if they were sitting down to have a discussion (about Carson). At the end of the season we will decide - all of us."

O'Neill added: "I haven't really said anything to Scott either way. I speak to his agent pretty regularly about things. He always asks how Scott is doing. Scott will be given that viewpoint - but I am sure he would like to hear it from a manager!"