Injury agony for Cunningham

Birmingham central defender Kenny Cunningham could be out of action for several weeks after suffering a knee problem.

The Republic of Ireland international has damaged a medial ligament which he aggravated in training on Friday.

Cunningham had still been keen to help out injury-ravaged Blues in yesterday’s derby clash with West Brom at the Hawthorns.

But Birmingham boss Steve Bruce could not afford to risk his summer signing from Wimbledon in the 1-1 draw as that may have led to an even longer lay-off.

Bruce said: “We hope it’s only a two or three week job. If I had played him on Saturday, it could have been a six-week job and I can’t afford that.

“He’s got a bit of a knee problem and he somehow aggravated it in training when he caught the ball on the end of his toe and strained the medial ligament.

“I am just hoping that it will settle down over the next few days so that maybe he can be back in contention sooner rather than later and it turns out to be not as bad as we first think.

“All our injuries are happening in the defence at the moment and we are really down to the bare bones.”

Michael Johnson and Martin Grainger are unlikely to return before Christmas after knee operations while Damien Johnson, who has been acting as a makeshift left-back, now has an hamstring problem.

In addition club captain Steve Vickers and Olivier Tebily are only just returning to action after five and two-month lay-offs respectively.