Keeper Márton Fülöp looks likely to miss Saturday’s game at Preston due to the ankle injury which forced him out of last week’s 3-1 defeat to Swansea. Better news for boss Roy Keane is that David Norris is over his sickness bug and Darren O’Dea and Mark Kennedy could both be involved at Deepdale after hamstring problems.
Keane says Fülöp remains a doubt with the problem he picked up in the derby defeat at Norwich: "Márton might go out and do something today, but not too much. Márton is still doubtful for Saturday.”
The Blues boss says both Brian Murphy and Arran Lee-Barrett are in contention for Saturday: "We’ve got a session this morning and we’ve got Murph and Arran. I’d never guarantee any player a place on the Thursday beforehand. They’ve got to fight on the Thursday and Friday to get in the team.
"Murph will be disappointed with the mistake he made on the first goal last week and, particularly with goalkeepers, you’ve got to have a good side to you because if you make a mistake it generally leads to a goal.
"The Van De Sars and the Schmeichels all make mistakes, but the top goalkeepers take it on the chin and get back on with it. If Murph was to play on Saturday, I know he’ll be ready.”
The Blues boss says his skipper will come back into the side, despite his praise for Grant Leadbitter and Jack Colback’s performances in central midfield against Swansea: "David Norris is fine and has trained. It was a 24-hour thing which we think he might have got from Gareth McAuley as he was carrying something. I think we might have a place for him.”
Darren O’Dea’s girlfriend has finally had their baby and the on-loan Celtic man is set to train today with Keane hopeful that the 23-year-old will be fine to keep his place in the side.
The likes of Luke Hyam (hamstring) and Connor Wickham (thigh) are still a week or two away from a return, while McAuley (achilles) is out until January, but left-back Mark Kennedy is on the mend, although Keane appears unlikely to risk the veteran Irishman at the weekend: "The lads who have been injured for the last few weeks are still injured and won’t be available.
"Mark Kennedy might have an outside chance if he trains well today and tomorrow having trained with us for the first time on Tuesday.
"But we’ve got to be careful because Mark’s struggled with hamstrings since he’s come to the club and the last thing we want to do is rush him back and for him to pick up another injury. We have to be careful with that one, but we do miss his experience.
"Hopefully we’ve got to the bottom of it now in terms of getting his back sorted because that was one of the issues. If we play him on Saturday we might have to give him an hour at most, but we’ll see how things go in the next day or two in training.”