Birmingham City manager Lee Clark has given Keith Fahey as much time off as he needs to deal with what the club have described as “personal and family” issues.

HSE guidelines warn that the type of virus which caused a lethal nursing home outbreak could spread rapidly in enclosed settings and, among older people, may not be stopped by the flu jab.

The Government’s bird-flu advisory group is due to meet later today following the discovery of a suspected case of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in Scotland.

GERMAN health authorities examined two women for possible bird flu infection yesterday, though the country’s main public health institute said they were very unlikely to have contracted the disease.