Sheffield Utd vs Birmingham: John Eustace provides injury update ahead of trip to league leaders - including Marc Roberts

The Championship returns this weekend after a two week break due to international duty with Birmingham City travelling to Sheffield United on Saturday.

Blues headed into the break on the back of a 0-0 draw with bottom-of-the-league Coventry City and will be looking to get their third win in four games.

John Eustace’s side sit 17th in the table going into Saturday’s clash with the Blades, winning three, drawing the same number of games and losing four times.

Goals have been hard to come by for Birmingham so far. They’ve scored the third-lowest in the league (8), five of which belong to Scott Hogan.

Eustace has suffered several injuries to his squad this campaign, but believes his team are ready to face the league-leaders this weekend.

"Things have been going well,” he said in his pre-match press conference via BluesTV. “The lads have been working hard on the training ground.

“We have been able to rest some of the lads who have had serious knocks, get them back up to health, but we have been working hard.”

The international break saw five Blues players represent their nations, but Eustace is hoping they can come back into the squad and ‘work their socks off’ like the rest of the team.

"They had a couple of days off, but nothing too much,” he added. “It is very important that we keep our foot on the gas and keep working hard.

“The attitude of the lads has been fantastic. It was great to see the lads going out on international duty and playing for their countries - that was a massive plus for us.

"But the lads that have stayed behind have been working their socks off."

Birmingham were without experienced defender Marc Roberts for their match with Coventry, while George Friend, Przemyslaw Placheta, Harlee Dean, Nico Gordon and Gary Gardner were also absent.

Eustace has provided the following update on any absentees on Saturday, with no new injuries to report.

"[There are] no new injuries,” he said. “We have got a lot of players who have been able to have a rest with their minor knocks.

“Robbo [Roberts] is still out which is a massive blow for us, obviously, he has been exceptional this season in the middle of our defence.

"We still have players to step in and make a difference. Harlee Dean has rejoined training with the group and has been excellent this week as well - that is a big plus.

"[George] Friend will, hopefully, be back next week and Nico [Gordon] is very close to joining us within the next week or so. They have been progressing nicely over the last couple of weeks.

"Gary Gardner saw a specialist on Monday. It was a massive blow to lose him against Norwich City. He is three or four weeks away from joining back in with the group. [Przemyslaw] Placheta, I don’t have a timescale but it is certainly not short-term."