Martin O'Neill insists Aston Villa winger Wayne Routledge wanted to go on loan to Championship side Cardiff City.
Cardiff boss Dave Jones says the two-month loan signing is a boost as the Bluebirds have a long sick-list.
Joe Ledley, Peter Whittingham, Ross McCormack and Jay Bothroyd are among the injured so Routledge will play.
"I was reluctant to let anyone on the fringes of the first team out on loan because we have a lot of games to play," said Villa boss O'Neill.
Routledge, who joined Villa from Tottenham for £1.25m in January 2008, has only made just one Premier League appearance this season.
And O'Neill admitted: "He wants to play - and he wants to play regularly.
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"He feels he could be in the team but at this minute, players are keeping him out. It means now he won't be eligible to play in the European games - and I would have been intending to use him in those.
"But, injury and form-permitting, he should play pretty regularly.
"I know they have had a couple of injuries to key players and Dave Jones said he will go and play. That should give him a boost of confidence and match fitness."
The 23-year-old has struggled with injury and had previous loan spells at Fulham and Portsmouth during his time with Spurs, but goes straight into the Cardiff squad for Saturday's early kick-off at Plymouth.
"It's a case of having to move fast to make sure we strengthen the squad," Jones told BBC Sport Wales.
"He has a lot of pace, good ability to score goals, goes past people pretty easy if he's on fire.
"He has just been a bit unfortunate in his career, he's moved from club to club over a short space of time and it doesn't give you time to settle in.
"So hopefully getting a run of games with us will get him back onto what got him his move in the first place from Palace to Tottenham and now he's at Villa.
"He'll be in the squad because with the injuries that we've got, we are down to the bare bones.
"With the likes of him coming in it just gives us a stronger bench where before we might have to delve into a lot of the youngsters."
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