Striker Connor Wickham is out of Sunday’s derby at Norwich after suffering a thigh injury during Wednesday’s reserves defeat to Spurs. Worse news for the Blues is that central defender Gareth McAuley has undergone surgery on his achilles tendinitis problem and will be out of action for two months.
Keane said: "We’ve had a disappointing week with injuries. Gareth McAuley’s had an operation, he’ll be out for a number of months, and Connor Wickham’s picked up a thigh problem in the reserves and he’ll be out for a couple of weeks.
"We needed a couple of new faces and we’re delighted to bring in a recognised right-back in Gianni Zuiverloon and I think Rory Fallon will give us something a little bit different in terms of an aerial threat, which is something I think we’ve lacked all season.”
The Blues boss says he was looking for an additional big striker even before Wickham suffered his injury: "We’ve been short of players. I’ve been saying since pre-season that if we were to have a good season we would need a bit of luck with injuries but the way things have panned out over the last month or two, with serious injuries to important players for us, we felt we needed to add to the squad.”
Keane feels that New Zealander Fallon adds to his striking options: "I think sometimes when balls come into the box we don’t have anyone available who goes and attacks the ball, whether that’s in the starting XI or on the bench. Rory will hopefully give us that, but we want to be fair to the boy as well and not expect miracles from him. It’s up to the other players to try and help him out.”
Defender Tom Eastman is out for about a week with the groin injury he suffered at Hull, while Mark Kennedy (hamstring) and Luke Hyam (hamstring) remain on the sidelines. Defender Darren O’Dea has been back in Scotland this week with his pregnant girlfriend but is expected to be back for Sunday’s game at Norwich.