Birmingham City take on Bristol City in their final home game of the Championship season on Saturday (3pm)
Ibrahim Osman of Birmingham City
Ibrahim Osman won’t play for Birmingham City against Bristol City on Saturday, Blues manager Chris Davies has confirmed.
The in-form winger was forced off in Wednesday’s victory over Preston having had a hand in both of Blues’ goals.
A clash of heads ended Osman’s match at 37 minutes and the Ghanaian is following concussion protocols, meaning he has been unable to train since.
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“He got a knock to his head so he’s unavailable for tomorrow,” said Davies. “There’s nothing you can do about that unfortunately. Hopefully it’s just this one game.”
It is hoped that Osman will be cleared to return to training early next week but the 21-year-old will have to jump through some hoops first in order to play against Portsmouth on the final day.
Blues will look to continue their good form without Osman and Demarai Gray is expected to replace him on the left-wing.
Gray was part of the last Blues squad, led by Gary Rowett in 2015/16, to secure a top-10 finish in the Championship – albeit he departed for Leicester City in January.
Four points from their final two fixtures against Bristol City and Portsmouth would give Blues 64 points, which would be their best Championship tally since they finished inside the play-offs under Chris Hughton in 2011/12.
Asked whether that is motivating Blues’ players in the proverbial end-of-season dead rubbers, Davies said: “It should do. I haven’t thought so much about the targets, it’s just been about winning the next game, but there was a good feeling after the game when I came into my press conference and there was talk of hitting the 60-point mark for the first time in a decade.
“It’s nice to have some tangible achievement for what I feel has been a season where the players have given a lot.
“Yes, if we can get to that number that would be excellent. It’s so tight, the fact is we could finish anywhere between 10th and 17th. We just have to keep going all the way to the end.”
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