All the fresh Birmingham City team news ahead of Bristol City, what will the Blues XI look like tomorrow?

Birmingham City are about to enter an incredibly tough period of their season in their battle to remain in the Championship for another season – and that starts with a visit from Bristol City tomorrow.

The Robins have been inconsistent since Nigel Pearson arrived a few weeks ago, and this is a chance for the Blues to get three points on the board before the games get infinitely tougher.

Birmingham will have to face Reading, Watford, Swansea and Brentford following their clash against Bristol City – you can’t get a much tougher run right now than that.

That’s why it’s important for Aitor Karanka’s outfit to claim maximum points at St Andrew’s this weekend if the club want to strengthen their hand when it comes to the survival battle, with Rotherham United having four games in hand on them after this weekend.

In what is good news though for Karanka, the Spaniard has pretty much a full squad to choose from ahead of the match.

Quiz: Have each of these 24 ex-Birmingham City players retired or not?

1 of 24

Aleksandr Hleb?

Retired Playing

The real surprise from last weekend’s defeat was that Sam Cosgrove made his return from injury, having only just joined in with training a few days prior to the trip to Yorkshire.

His inclusion in the squad wasn’t expected, but it looks like he’s fit and ready to go to start if he’s called upon.

“Sam has been good in training; he is hungry and wants to show that he is ready to play.” Karanka told the club’s official website.

“He has been with us the whole week, which has been good. Before Barnsley, he had only had one session.”

Karanka also revealed that the rest of the squad are fit and ready to go, which could make for an interesting team selection come the announcement at 2pm tomorrow.

PREDICTED BIRMINGHAM STARTING LINE-UP (4-2-3-1): Etheridge; Colin, Dean, Roberts, Pedersen; Sunjic, Harper; Sanchez, Halilovic, Bela; Hogan.