Birmingham City dealt injury blow before first pre-season match

Ethan Laird's bid to regain his right-back slot at Birmingham City has been hampered by an injury at the beginning of pre-season. The Blues' longest serving player, having joined the club in 2023, hasn't been able to join his teammates on the grass in the first two weeks of pre-season.

The defender missed a chunk of last season due to a hamstring injury, featuring in only 20 league games, and now looks set to miss the team's first pre-season match. Blues take on League One side Huddersfield Town on Friday to wrap up their training camp in Portugal.

Blues manager Chris Davies explained the situation: "Ethan has had a bit of a niggle and hasn't quite been able to get training yet. He had a good summer and prepared himself. Towards the end he's just had a slight issue. We've got it checked out and hopefully from this point on it's just a matter of days before he re-joins training again."

The injury setback comes at an awkward time for Laird's prospects of reclaiming his place in the starting lineup. Midfielder Tomoki Iwata was Davies' preferred right-back last season before Bright Osayi-Samuel made the position his own in the run-in. The Nigeria international looks set to steal a march on Laird due to his latest injury setback, having impressed during the latter stages of last season.

The timing is particularly unfortunate, coming at the start of pre-season when players typically build fitness and stake their claims for places. With days to go before the friendly against Huddersfield, Laird will be hoping to make a speedy recovery and rejoin his teammates in training.