Lee Carsley in the frame for Birmingham City job

Former Republic of Ireland international Lee Carsley remains tight-lipped about his prospects of becoming Birmingham City manager, having been asked to take charge of the club “until a suitable candidate comes in”.

The 43-year-old caretaker has been installed among the bookmakers’ favourites to get the job vacated by Harry Redknapp on a permanent basis along with former Middlesbrough head coach Aitor Karanka and Steve Cotterill, whose longest reigns have come at Cheltenham and Burnley.

However, amid speculation that he could combine the role with his England Under-21 duties, Carsley has given little away about his position.

“I got asked late on Saturday evening to just basically take over first-team affairs until a suitable candidate comes in.

“It’s never nice when a manager and a staff lose their jobs and obviously, it’s not great circumstances when the team has lost five or six games on the bounce.”

Carsley has wasted little time in bolstering his coaching staff in the wake of Redknapp’s departure.

He took training for the first time yesterday after briefly speaking to the players, and was assisted by club captain Paul Robinson and former Coventry and Derby team-mate Paul Williams.

Williams has been drafted in with Redknapp’s assistant Kevin Bond having followed him out of the door at St Andrews on Saturday evening.

Elsewhere, Republic of Ireland international Jeff Hendrick is available to Sean Dyche for Burnley’s Carabao Cup clash with Leeds tonight.

The 25-year-old, who has not played for the Clarets in a month, was left out of the squad Dyche took to Anfield at the weekend - despite being considered fully fit following a thigh problem.

“I do believe in the group,” Dyche said. “I think there are very, very fine margins between who’s playing and who’s not. Currently the team are doing a good job overall and the team that played in the cup (against Blackburn in the last round) did a fantastic job.

I was questioned about the changes against Blackburn, heavily in some quarters, and yet they gave a very, very good performance.

“I believe in the players wholeheartedly.

“In my opinion, I’m certainly not resting players, I’m trying to get players on the sharp edge of playing because that’s what you need in the Premier League and it’s a big jump if you’re not playing some sort of football.”