Birmingham City trio in danger of suspension as Hull City and Millwall tests await

Three Birmingham City players are at risk of a two-match suspension, according to an EFL disciplinary rule.

Dion Sanderson was handed a three-man ban after he was red carded against Southampton. Blues appealed against the decision and were unsuccessful and so he will be missing for a further game. Sanderson could be joined by some of his teammates however who are in danger of a suspension too. 

The EFL has disciplinary rules for players who accumulate a certain amount of yellow cards. If any player gets 10 yellow cards before the 37th game of the season then they will be subject to a two-match ban.

Four players are on eight yellow cards or more with two games remaining until the cut off. Three of those could play in the coming weeks however. Centre-back Krystian Bielik is the closest on nine but he has a torn stomach muscle. Interim boss Mark Venus ruled him out for the coming weeks and so he’s not in danger of getting a ban. 

Juninho Bacuna, Ivan Sunnis and Jay Stansfield are all on eight yellow cards however. All are players who have played a lot of football this season. Stansfield has the third most minutes in the current campaign, and then Bacuna and Sunjic are fifth and sixth. 

All three players who should be in contention have two away games against Hull City (March 5) and Millwall (March 9) to overcome. If they can do that then they will avoid missing two games of the run-in. The EFL does have a rule that there will be a three-match ban for any player that accumulates 15 yellow cards but that would be an extreme for any player. 

Blues are currently 20th in the Championship standings and are outside of the relegation zone on the virtue of goal difference. Their absentee list isn't too long with just Alfie Chang, Dion Sanderson and Krystian Bielik absent, whilst Marc Roberts is a doubt for their match against Hull City on Tuesday night. 

Hull City defender Jacob Greaves, a reported target for Everton, should he get carded tonight against Birmingham would be suspended for the Tigers' next two games. Millwall have Jake Cooper and George Saville both on eight yellow cards this season and so even if they were carded against Blackburn Rovers tonight, they wouldn’t miss out at the weekend unless they picked up a red card.