Injury woes for McLeish

Alex McLeish insists Birmingham’s treatment room is “bursting at the seams” ahead of Saturday’s trip to Hull.

Forward James McFadden (thigh) and defender Franck Queudrue (hamstring) are the latest players to join an injury list that already includes Cameron Jerome (ankle), Gregory Vignal, Marcus Bent (both hamstring) and Martin Taylor (ankle).

Midfielders Lee Carsley (back) and Damien Johnson (strain) are also struggling to be fit.

However, there are some positives for McLeish with the news centre-back Liam Ridgewell has made a quicker than expected recovery from his broken leg, and he will compete with the returning Scott Dann (thigh) and Giovanny Espinoza to start alongside Roger Johnson.

Full-backs David Murphy (knee) and Stephen Carr (thigh) are also back training with the first team and may feature as McLeish ponders whether to include summer signing Christian Benitez from the start for the first time.

Team (from): Hart, Taylor, Doyle, Carr, Parnaby, Murphy, Johnson, Ridgewell, Dann, Espinoza, Larsson, Fahey, Ferguson, Bowyer, Carsley, Johnson, Tainio, O’Connor, Phillips, Benitez, McSheffrey, O’Shea.