Birmingham City provided an injury boost to Leicester City, and an update on trio

admin | April 4, 2024 | Other Clubs | No Comments

Gary Rowett will be able to reintroduce Alex Pritchard into Birmingham City’s squad for Saturday’s game against promotion contenders Leicester City.

Rowett leads Blues to another of his former teams, the King Power Stadium, on Saturday, looking to build on their vital success over Preston North End on Easter Monday with another win.

They’ll also be accompanied by playmaker Pritchard, who was reunited with manager Tony Mowbray after signing on a permanent basis from Sunderland in the January transfer window. Pritchard hasn’t been available since the defeat at Middlesbrough midway through last month. Pritchard suffered a calf injury on his Blues debut against West Brom in February, and he has had a difficult start to his career overall.

The creative returned to training prior to the win over Preston, but Blues and Rowett chose to approach with care, and a working week later, he’s ready to play for the first time in three weeks.

“He trained Sunday,” Rowett confirmed. “We felt it was a little bit too soon after just one day, to put him straight back in the squad. We’ve got a reasonably big squad at the moment, through no fault of anyone we have a lot of players in a similar area of the pitch. In terms of the bench, that means that we might have to make difficult decisions in leaving one or two out.

“No fault of their own, but perhaps only because I don’t need six or eight of the ten players. We have to find methods to make good decisions, but given his experience and quality, there will be occasions when you need that type of player. “He will be available for Leicester.”

The Blues then face injuries to Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marc Roberts, and Oliver Burke; loanee Burke hasn’t played since January due to a muscle ailment, while Jutkiewicz (knee) and Roberts (calf) are also recovering from major setbacks. Rowett expects that all three will be available for the final few contests.

“It’s always hard with those injuries,” he said. “You look at Jukey, Marc Roberts, and Burkey and think, at best, they’ll be back for the last three games. That is the situation. That is not certain, but it depends on how much they have played and how fit they will be to effect those games.

“It’s like anything, you want those players back in the squad and available, but until we know what the next couple of weeks looks like for them, it’s hard to give a definite timescale. Hopefully a miracle happens and they’re back a lot sooner, but I think realistically that seems to be the general consensus.”