Tiny Taylor ruled out

Birmingham City's rearguard injuries problems have heightened with an injury to Martin Taylor, who has been ruled out for up to 12 weeks. The problem came in the Nottingham Forrest match, being stretchered off. A scan has revealed severe ankle ligament damage.

Blues boss Alex McLeish confirmed: 'Tiny suffered a bad twist of the ankle. It will keep him out for a considerable period of time.

'So we've lost him as well as others and it has made centre-half problematic for us.

'Franck Quedrue came in for his first game last night, at centre-half, and you could see he was extremely rusty. We're definitely short in that department but it's just down to lady luck.'

The injury list keeps mounting at the back with Murphy, Quedrue and Ridgewell already sidelined Blues now have a very thin back line despite strengthening adequately over the summer. Should Blues start strong the injury worries could drift away and the team could be well within comfort based on the hope that Scott Dann and Roger Johnson hold their own, they seem to be the favoured selection predicted to come from McLeish.

Martin Taylor is not the strongest talent blues have at the back, often found down the pecking order since making his loan permanent from Blackburn a number of years back, he however is a loyal servant to the club and has had fair impact on the club.

He needed the support of the club and fans when accused of being a malicious player by the angered Arsene Wenger (the statement was later retracted) but since his comeback from suspension from the Eduardo tackle the centre back remained professional and often supplied a calm head in the championship season just gone.



By Chris Handy

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