Town Paul Lambert says the Blues will need to look at replacing fitness coach Jim Henry, who recently returned to his native Scotland and will see out the rest of the season working in a consultancy role.
Henry is understood to have departed suddenly a fortnight ago following ongoing friction having joined the club as part of Lambert’s staff when he took charge in October 2018, having previously worked with the Blues boss at Stoke.
Asked whether he had any plans to replace Henry, Lambert said: "We need to look at that because it's an important role, so I guess there's been that much going at the minute that it's something where we need to get our heads together and see where we're going. Again, a lot will be on investment and what's happening.”
In terms of who is taking on Henry’s role - officially head of athletic performance/sports science - in the interim, he added: There are a few lads who are mucking in, which you have to do in times like. A few lads are helping.”
Was it a big blow to lose Henry? "I think when you lose any member of staff, it's a blow. But that's the world I guess, and football is so unpredictable with what can happen when you lose people.
"Even when you sell a player and he's done well for you there's always a little bit of sadness there because you think he's done well.”
What can he do in his consultancy role? "I’m big enough and old enough now to look after ourselves. Jim’s going to do his own thing. We will crack on here the best we can. We’ll go with what we’ve got here and we’ll go with everything we’re doing.”
Reflecting on Town’s lengthy list of injured players, he points out it’s not just the Blues who are in that situation.
"The injury situation, even if you look at Liverpool where they’ve got all the best technology in the world and Jurgen [Klopp]’s having incredible injury up there as well,” he said.
"The number of injuries are going through everybody, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best surgeons in the world, best medical staff in the world, what’s happened in the last six or seven months will hopefully never be repeated again because it’s been so, so hard.”
A former Scotland international judo athlete, Henry has also worked at Bury, Rangers, Hibs, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Celtic.