Exclusive: Birmingham City handed boost ahead of Stoke City clash - it involves Demarai Gray | OneFootball

Birmingham City winger Demarai Gray has returned to training ahead of this weekend's trip to Stoke City, Football League World understands

Birmingham City and Chris Davies have been handed a welcome boost ahead of this weekend's fixture against high-flying Stoke City as Demarai Gray is now poised to be in contention for the trip to the Potteries, Football League World can exclusively reveal.

Blues will be vying to return to winning ways following their 2-0 loss at Leicester City before the international break, which arrived as the promotion hopeful's second defeat in as many matches after crashing out of the EFL Cup to League One side Port Vale.

It was a difficult evening at the King Power Stadium, with goals either side of the interval from Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira consigning Birmingham to a first defeat of the 2025/26 Championship campaign, having made a strong start to life back in English football's second-tier.

But they will be dusting themselves down and getting ready to go again when they travel up the road to face Stoke on Saturday afternoon, with Mark Robins' side set to pose a tough test following a lightning start to the season.

Stoke, who narrowly avoided relegation last term, have won three of their opening four matches, although they too fell to consecutive defeats in cup and league action prior to this month's international break.

Birmingham City's Demarai Gray set to be available for Stoke City fixture

Ex-Leicester winger Demarai Gray suffered a shoulder injury against his former side but still managed to play the full 90 minutes.

Gray was, however, struggling to shake off the effects after injuring himself during the first half and was visibly unsettled by the after-effects as the match wore on.

There were suggestions afterwards that the Blues academy product, who rejoined the Second City club in the summer from Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq, had suffered long-term damage.

However, Football League World has been informed that those fears have proved unfounded, and while the winger has suffered a ten-day period of soreness, he has returned to training with Davies' squad and is expected to be in contention for the trip to the Bet 365 Stadium.

Gray, a 27-cap international with Steve McClaren's Jamaica, was not named in the squad for the Reggae Boyz's World Cup qualifiers against Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago, but is poised to avoid any sort of injury-related absence with Birmingham.

This will come as a welcome and much-needed boost for Blues in the build-up to Saturday's fixture at Stoke, with fan favourite Gray having made a strong impression upon his return to the club by notching two assists in his first five matches.

Birmingham City bolstered by Jay Stansfield, Marvin Ducksch double-boost ahead of Stoke City

The break has allowed Davies to bring another couple of his players back up to speed. Last week, Football League World revealed that star striker Jay Stansfield has returned to first-team training with Birmingham after injuring his ankle in the defeat against Port Vale, a setback which was initially feared to be long-term.

Stansfield, who has started the season in red-hot form, missed the Leicester match but, like Gray, will be raring to go for the short trip up the M6 to face Stoke this Saturday.

The break has also given Marvin Ducksch time to recover from a nagging soft tissue problem that has blighted his season so far after he injured it during the first week of pre-season training with his former club, Werder Bremen, and Davies will hope to be able to hand the two-cap German international his first start in Blues colours before long.