Birmingham will be without Alexander Hleb for up to three weeks with a calf strain. The injury meant the midfielder missed the Carling Cup match against Aston Villa in midweek but manager Alex McLeish revealed it is more serious than originally thought. Craig Gardner could return to the starting line-up for the match against Tottenham in place of Lee Bowyer after coming off the bench on Wednesday. Michael Dawson returns to the Tottenham squad for the first time since August for the game at St Andrew's. England defender Dawson will be on the bench after recovering from the knee ligament damage suffered on international duty three months ago. His return is a boost, with Younes Kaboul (hip) sidelined, while Rafael van der Vaart (hamstring) and Jermaine Jenas (calf) are also out, and captain Ledley King (groin), Jamie O'Hara (back) and Jonathan Woodgate (groin) are longer-term absentees. Blues (from): Foster, Carr, Murphy, Bowyer, Johnson, Ridgewell, Larsson, Gardner, Jerome, Ferguson, Doyle, Dann, Madera, Fahey, Zigic, Valles, Parnaby, Beausejour, O'Shea, Redmond, Jiranek, Phillips Tottenham (from): Gomes, Cudicini, Hutton, Corluka, Bale, Dawson, Gallas, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Palacios, Sandro, Kranjcar, Lennon, Bentley, Modric, Crouch, Pavlyuchenko, Keane, Defoe.
