This is the period Gary Rowett is going to meet Birmingham City players for the first time

Blues have chosen Gary Rowett as interim manager to stop the club’s decline in the Championship standings.

Gary Rowett will lead his first Birmingham City training session on Wednesday afternoon.

The new temporary manager will meet with Blues players at the club’s Elite Performance and Innovation Centre in Henley-in-Arden later today, less than 24 hours after his appointment was revealed.

That comes after the Blues board decided to halt the club’s fall down the table after Tony Mowbray left for medical reasons. The squad has lost five of six games under stand-in Mark Venus, and Rowett has been brought in to ensure the Blues do not fall farther behind their current 21st spot.

Rowett will hold a training session for the first time since being controversially fired and replaced by Gianfranco Zola in December 2016; however, he is unlikely to be allowed to call on the only surviving player from that squad.

Blues players have had a few days off, but the majority are now back in training for Rowett’s first game at QPR on Good Friday.

Rowett will not have the opportunity to work with players called up for international duty such as Jordan James, Neil Etheridge, Juninho Bacuna, Jay Stansfield, and Paik Seung-ho, and he will also have to examine the fitness of Krystian Bielik, Keshi Anderson, and Siriki Dembele.

Rowett oversaw two tenth-place finishes and had a 39% victory ratio in his debut season in charge of the Blues. His first home game will be against Preston on Easter Monday, April 1st.