Hunt comes in for Midlands derby

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy was admittedly dealing with the most severe injury crisis he has had to contend with in almost two decades of management heading into today’s derby clash with Birmingham.

With enough players sidelined to make an entire starting XI, McCarthy was forced to make four changes from the side who went down 3-0 at Blackburn last weekend.

Kevin Doyle (dead leg), Matt Jarvis, Michael Mancienne (both knee) and Steven Mouyokolo (back) made way for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Stephen Hunt, David Edwards and Richard Stearman.

Birmingham counterpart Alex McLeish also made three changes, handing starts to Serbian striker Nikola Zigic, Sebastian Larsson and David Murphy.

Craig Gardner (illness), Liam Ridgewell (eye) were missing while Jean Beausejour found himself on the bench.

Wolverhampton: Hennessey, Zubar, Berra, Stearman, Elokobi, Foley, Edwards, Milijas, Ward, Hunt, Ebanks-Blake.

Subs: Hahnemann, Fletcher, Mujangi Bia, Ebanks-Landell, Winnall, Rooney, Doherty.

Birmingham: Foster, Carr, Johnson, Dann, Murphy, Larsson, Bowyer, Ferguson, Fahey, Jerome, Zigic.

Subs: Taylor, Gardner, Phillips, Derbyshire, Parnaby, Beausejour, Redmond.

Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)