Birmingham City look set to welcome back a key player for tonight’s Championship clash vs Cardiff City.
Birmingham City head to South Wales this evening to take on Cardiff City at the Cardiff City Stadium.
It’s another tough game for Wayne Rooney who’s now won just one of his opening nine games as Blues manager, with his side now sitting in 17th place of the Championship table.
Last time out, Birmingham City lost 2-0 away at neighbours Coventry City.
Dion Sanderson was a surprise absentee that game; he’d played every minute of Blues’ Championship campaign before that game but was missing with what was said to be a freak injury.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s game though, Rooney revealed that Sanderson is back and ready to play.
Dion Sanderson available after ‘freak’ foot injury
Speaking to Birmingham Live about the 23-year-old Sanderson, Rooney said:
“He’s fine now. As I said after the game, it was a strange one. He woke up at 2am with a massive pain in his foot. He was close to taking himself to the hospital. He came in and he was struggling to walk on it and he wasn’t available for that reason.
“He went for a scan and the scan showed a little bit of floating bone. We think that was triggering his nerve to cause the pain. He’s had a little bit of work on that and it’s moved the bone, that’s eased it up.
“He has trained since and sometimes you have this. I’ve never heard of it, it’s a freak one. Going off Dion and the scan, he’s recovered from that and he’s ready to play.”
Sanderson rejoined Birmingham City on a permanent basis in the summer.
He was handed the captains armband by John Eustace and started the season in fine form. But since Rooney’s appointment, Sanderson and indeed many of his Birmingham City teammates have fallen well out of form.
Does he come straight back into the Birmingham City XI?
Injuries are Birmingham City’s Achilles heel right now; Rooney has a number of players sidelined and players continue to pick up injuries.
Sanderson’s return though will be a boost, whether he’s in form or not, and it gives Rooney a bit of a dilemma of whether to start him or not.
Rooney says Sanderson is ready to play but whether that means he’s ready to start is another question.
The experience Marc Roberts stepped into the XI last time and didn’t really impress all that much, with his centre-back partner Emanuel Aiwu another name who’s yet to really impress under the new boss.
So there’s options for Rooney, but not necessarily decent options.
With Sanderson being the captain, expect him to come back into the XI should he be fit to do so, and expect him to be eager to prove a point after a significant dip in form.
Blues fans are well aware of his quality but in this new system under Rooney, the players are struggling, and tonight’s game against top six hopefuls Cardiff doesn’t make things any easier.
Kick off is at 7:45pm.