Nikola Zigic remains an injury doubt ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with Everton at Goodison but was expected to train today and undergo an assessment.
The Serbian striker sat out of Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to West Brom with a groin injury sustained in training and aggravated in the warm-up, with Alex McLeish advised not to risk his target man, despite Birmingham’s need for his sizeable influence in the defeat to their local rivals.
According to the the latest from the club, Birmingham will examine the Zigic situation again after training this afternoon. McLeish had this to say…
“We’ll have a look at Zigic this afternoon because he is on the borderline. Zigic got worse as the second half progressed (against West Brom). He says it (his groin) was nipping and aching away and the doc said it would have been a risk to put him on. He was a bit better yesterday and he is going to try and train this afternoon and he’s going to do something with the physios and we’ll see if he’s ready tomorrow.”
This will come as semi-encouraging news for the many Fantasy Managers who invested in the Serb ahead of Birmingham’s double fixtures in gameweek 29. Over 84,000 Fantasy Premier League managers brought in the striker prior to the gameweek deadline.
Elsewhere, Martin Jiranek has shaken off a thigh injury and is back in contention, while both Liam Ridgewell and Roger Johnson are expected to overcome groin and calf problems. It’s not all good news for McLeish however, with Barry Ferguson and Craig Gardner both remaining sidelined with rib and thigh injuries respectively.
The Birmingham boss would seem likely to ring the changes given the nature of the West Brom setback with Seb Larsson and Jiranek pushing for recalls – Zigic would appear to be a certain starter if he comes through his assessment.
As for Everton, they will be without skipper Phil Neville after he suffered a hamstring injury in the weekend win over Newcastle. Johnny Heitinga will be expected to come into a holding midfield role to take his place. That may well be the only change to a winning lineup, with Seamus Coleman set to be on the bench once again having been rested for the St James’ Park trip. Victor Anichebe is David Moyes’ only other injury concern – he was used from the bench in Saturday’s 2-1 win.
