Birmingham City likely to start without seven-figure-star against Middlesbrough as Wayne Rooney faces decision

Wayne Rooney has been faced with a difficult decision to make ahead of his first game in charge of Birmingham City.

Blues are in action against Middlesbrough this weekend as they travel to the Riverside Stadium for their Championship clash on Saturday, October 21. It's the first game of the Rooney era, and he faces his former Manchester United teammate Michael Carrick.

He will already be unable to call upon several of his players as a result of injury, such as Keshi Anderson, Tyler Roberts, Lee Buchanan and more, but now he's got a team selection dilemma to think about.

One of Birmingham's leading players Juninho Bacuna was in action over the international break for Curacao. The 26-year-old featured twice with mixed results, as they lost 2-1 to Panama but beat Trinidad & Tobago 5-3. He played a total of 173 minutes whilst in the Southern Caribbean, and registered an assist in the first match, as well as scoring a penalty against Trinidad.

Bacuna's dedication to his country is admirable, however his duty for his country may affect his availability at the weekend. Curaco's win over Trinidad kicked-off at 1.00 am UK time, and so the match would have finished at around 3.30 am on early Wednesday morning.

The midfielder will now head back to Birmingham, however that's a 7400-mile journey as-the-crow-flies. It's unsure how his route back to the Midlands will work but it is far from ideal preparations for this weekend’s clash.

Several teams take the decision to travel to the game a day before the match to help assist them with their preparations. Teams in the second tier tend to travel at around mid-day and arrive at a hotel, where they’ll go through a defbrief of the opposition whilst also preparing for their players best for the game.

If that was the case then Bacuna would be left potentially with just one day of training, should he return on Wednesday, and train on Thursday. A training session either on Friday in Birmingham could be a suggestion, or whilst they’re in the Middlesbrough area.

In the last international break, Bacuna was limited to a 19-minute substitute appearance against Watford, having played in Marinique five days before. John Eustace made that decision then, but now Rooney will be the one in charge of making that decision.