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Max Bird is heading into his second season as a Bristol City player(Image: Photo by Michael Steele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nMax Bird didn’t feature for Bristol City in their final pre-season friendly of the summer against Real ValladolidMax Bird is heading into his second season as a Bristol City player(Image: Photo by Michael Steele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Gerhard Struber has provided an update on the fitness of Max Bird ahead of Bristol City<\/a>\u2019s season opener against Sheffield United, admitting that there is a chance the weekend\u2019s clash could come too soon for the midfielder to feature.<\/p>\n While Bird did travel with Struber\u2019s squad for their warm-weather training camp in Portugal last month, the Reds confirmed that he would be following an individual training programme whilst away from BS3, having sustained a calf injury.<\/p>\n Upon the conclusion of the Algarve camp, City confirmed that both the 24-year-old and fellow midfielder Joe Williams<\/a> had progressed well, with the hope being that they would be available for the start of the season. However, neither player took part in the Robins\u2019 final friendly of the summer, a 4-0 win over Spanish second-tier side Real Valladolid.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Ross McCrorie: Bristol City defender on Struber impact, scoring touch and Yeboah’s ‘new level’<\/a>READ MORE: Gerhard Struber sets out what Manchester United loanee Radek Vitek will bring to Bristol City<\/a><\/p>\n Whether or not Williams will be ready to play a role when the Championship season gets underway against the Blades at Bramall Lane on Saturday remains to be seen, especially after he was involved in the Reds\u2019 open training session at Ashton Gate last week. For Bird though, Struber seems to believe the Carabao Cup clash with MK Dons may be a more achievable return date.<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol<\/a> ahead of the clash with Real Valladolid, the head coach said: \u201cRight now, he looks not bad. I would say he can jump into training with the team in the next week.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe Sheffield [United] will come a little bit too early for him, but we will build and grow him in the next few days and the next week. Then, I think maybe he could be involved in our Carabao [Cup] game.\u201d<\/p>\n Bird impressed in his first season at Ashton Gate last term as he made 49 appearances for the Reds in all competitions. Having thrived in attacking midfield in the early stages of the campaign, the 24-year-old dropped into a deeper role alongside his former Derby County teammate Jason Knight<\/a> as the Robins continued to progress through the middle portion of the season.<\/p>\n In the final months of the campaign, however, Bird returned to a more advanced role, often starting as one of the two number 10s, typically alongside West Ham United\u2019s George Earthy<\/a>, deployed behind now Luton Town forward Nahki Wells. While most, including Liam Manning, felt he should have contributed more in the final third, the midfielder ended the term with one goal and eight assists, the most of any City player.<\/p>\n Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n With Earthy returning to the London Stadium after his loan spell, Williams and Bird sidelined and Marcus McGuane<\/a> completing a permanent move to Huddersfield Town late last month, Knight and summer signing Adam Randell have been the most common pairing in the Robins\u2019 midfield throughout pre-season.<\/p>\n Having impressed in his initial outings over the course of the summer after making the move to Ashton Gate from Plymouth Argyle shortly after Struber’s arrival was confirmed, Randell got off the mark in red and white with an early goal in the win over Valladolid on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n While the true test will come against Ruben Selles’ side this weekend, Struber was delighted for the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, this is always something with the boys,\u201d the City boss explained when asked how important the strike could be for Randell. \u201cWhen they have in the end success, they can realise good moments and good actions.<\/p>\n \u201cI am also happy for him that he scored today.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: EFL summer transfer window LIVE: Bristol City, Bristol Rovers and rivals look to add to squads<\/a>READ MORE: Report: Bristol City smash Real Valladolid in final friendly before Championship season begins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Bird didn’t feature for Bristol City in their final pre-season friendly of the summer against Real ValladolidMax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-318602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114973641513067288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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