Lazaridis will be 'nursed along' by Bruce

Steve Bruce has admitted that he will have to adopt a softly softly approach with veteran Birmingham winger Stan Lazaridis after an injury-plagued season.

The Australian international has been dogged by a thigh muscle problem which first flared up during the home Barclays Premiership match with Manchester City in late August.

The 32-year-old player has been restricted to just 10 starts during 2004/2005, the last of which was against Leeds in an FA Cup clash in early January.

Lazaridis, one of the few survivors of the pre-Bruce era still at St Andrews, is now back in contention for a first-team spot.

He was used as a substitute by Bruce during Sunday’s defeat at West Brom following an injury to Olivier Tebily.

But the Blues boss is aware that he may have to carefully nurse along Lazaridis at this juncture of his career.

Bruce said: “We have got to realise that Stan is now nearly 33 and has had a really nasty muscle injury.

“You have got to be really careful with muscle injuries and we are going to have to nurse Stan along.

“It has come to that stage of his career where Stan maybe might not be able to do what the rest of them can do.

“But it is good to have back because he has been one of the big players along with people like Dunny (David Dunn), Muzzy (Izzet), Mikael (Forssell) we have missed for most of the season.”

Tebily’s calf injury means he will not be in contention for the Second City derby with Aston Villa on March 20.

But even if fit he was unlikely to be in the starting line-up as Mario Melchiot is likely to have fully recovered from the twisted ankle suffered against Liverpool in mid-February.