Sir Alex Ferguson expects to have Nani available as Manchester United take their 17-match unbeaten Premier League record to Birmingham.
The Portugal winger missed the Boxing Day win over Sunderland with a hip complaint but is set to come back into a United line-up Ferguson intends to change in order to keep it fresh.
Park Ji-sung has now left for his Asian Cup commitments with South Korea and Paul Scholes (groin) is also out, whilst there are also doubts over John O'Shea (calf) and Darren Fletcher, who was sent home from training on Christmas Day with a heavy cold.
On-loan midfielder Alexander Hleb could feature on Birmingham's bench after recovering from a hamstring injury.
The Barcelona playmaker suffered the knock in the match against Fulham on November 27 and has been able to train with the squad again. He is short of match practice, and manager Alex McLeish has said he will take the decision on whether to include him as late as possible.
Blues have no other new fitness worries. James McFadden is a long-term absentee with a knee injury.
Teams:
Birmingham (from): Foster, Carr, Murphy, Bowyer, Johnson, Ridgewell, Larsson, Gardner, Hleb, Jerome, Ferguson, Doyle, Dann, Madera, Fahey, Zigic, Valles, Parnaby, Beausejour, O'Shea, Redmond, Jiranek, Phillips.
Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Rafael, Brown, Neville, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Smalling, Evans, Evra, Fabio, Nani, Obertan, Carrick, Fletcher, Gibson, Anderson, Giggs, Bebe, Rooney, Berbatov, Macheda, Hernandez, Owen.
