'Plain and obvious' - The reasons behind Birmingham City's massive injury problems

Birmingham City’s season has been blighted – arguably ruined – by injuries.

We’re not just talking about the loss of Tahith Chong earlier in the season, which threw Lee Bowyer a tactical curve ball and saw Blues have to reinvent themselves on the hoof.

We’re talking incessant, rhythm-disrupting, formation-shaping pulls, strains and tears that have affected pretty much every game since October.

Since the New Year it’s almost been a case of which players are available and how do we fit them into our shape?

And it’s not got any better, in fact it seems to be getting worse.

Blues currently have one fit senior defender. They have one fit established striker. The rest of the team is made up of midfielders and wingers all playing out of position.

But why?

At this point it’s only fair to say if you’re looking for a single reason, one identifiable solution, you’re not going to find it in this piece.

Instead there is a list of variables all affecting each other in a tangled web of issues that in truth are not going to be resolved until Blues can really investigate what’s happened when the season is over.

If there’s one thing we can all agree on it’s Lee Bowyer ’s contention that it has to be sorted.

The head coach said: “We have got to fix the problem, we are constantly talking with the physios, the sports science people and us as coaches – we put plans together, training schedules, how long’s good, how long not for, big areas, small areas. We have these conversations all the time.”

In this piece we’ll try to look under every stone, cover every issue that has been mentioned, either by supporters, Bowyer himself in press conferences or at last week’s Q&A session with Craig Gardner and Troy Deeney.

It seems logical to start with