Larsson injury relief
by Imaad Bajwa, 20 March 2008
Birmingham City can breathe a sigh of relief after their midfielder Sebastian Larsson’s knee injury is not as bad as first feared.
He suffered the suspected medial-ligament injury after a strong challenge by Nicky Butt in Birmingham’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle at St. Andrews.
The Sweden international could now be fit to face Reading in The Premier League on Saturday.
Larsson said: “It’s not a bad one. It was checked at half-time and it opened up a bit so we didn’t want to risk making it any worse. I’ve had it before on this knee so it shouldn’t be a big problem.”
His manager Alex McLeish can now look forward having his influential midfielder back into the helm to help his team out of the relegation battle.
“We missed the drive and thrust of Larsson when he came off the other night," he said.
“His form has been fantastic in recent weeks, his goals and his delivery from the wide areas, his work-rate. I think he has had a fantastic season and we would have hated to miss him,” said McLeish.
He added: “We are a small squad and don’t have the strength in cope if we are losing two or three of the players who are starting in the team every week.”
With Larsson back in contention for the weekend, he believes Blues can defeat Reading and continue their recent run of good form.
“All the games are going to be massive now. We are now not losing many at the moment and we are feeling confident so we are definitely going to go for the three points down there at Reading.
“Any team that puts back-to-back wins together now is going to be in a good position. There are so many of us involved in it, a couple of good results and you can move clear.”