Chris Davies shares Birmingham City injury update on Kai Wagner - it is bad news | OneFootball

Blues look set to be without Kai Wagner's services until next month

Birmingham City's mixed fortunes this season continued on Wednesday night, as Chris Davies' side saw off Queens Park Rangers at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

After three defeats in a row, a 1-0 victory against the Hoops alongside a rather encouraging performance, saw Blues narrow the gap on the Championship's play-off places back to five points with nine matches to go.

The atmosphere in B9 has, much like the club's on-pitch results, also been up and down, but there will now be a renewed sense of optimism that last season's League One champions could gatecrash the top six picture.

Davies certainly rang the changes from Birmingham's extremely below-par performance and result against Charlton Athletic last Saturday, with some of those enforced due to injury and illness-related absences, whilst others were merely selection-based.

The full-back department has provided the Blues boss with plenty of headaches and dilemmas to solve throughout the season so far, and he opted to hand Ethan Laird a first start in six months after recently returning from a long-term hamstring issue.

However, the former Manchester United man would start in a more unnatural left-back role, as he previously did in the early weeks of the campaign, whilst Tomoki Iwata continued at right-back for the second game running.

Laird's inclusion in said role was largely down to the omission of Kai Wagner from the matchday squad entirely, with the £2m January signing from Major League Soccer side, Philadelphia Union, still feeling the effects of a bruising duel from ex-Blues striker, Lyndon Dykes.

Unfortunately for Davies, this means that he is set to be without the influential defender for a brief period, with matches against Sheffield United and Derby County coming before the season's final international break.

Chris Davies issues fresh Birmingham City, Kai Wagner injury setback

The German defender was able to fulfil the entire 90 minutes in South London last weekend despite his early knock from the Scottish forward, in what was his 13th-straight appearance since debuting against Coventry City on January 4th.

Wagner was a doubt for the recent clash with Middlesbrough after sustaining a knock against Millwall, but was able to pull through and continue starting at left-back in place of Alex Cochrane, who is also still sidelined with an ankle issue.

However, it is expected that the 28-year-old will not return until at least the start of April, with Blues facing Blackburn Rovers on Good Friday to kickstart the month.

“Kai got a knock and it looks like it’s going to rule him out for a few weeks which is disappointing," said Davies.

Also referencing the absences of Tommy Doyle and August Priske, he added: “Priske has been unwell, so not available, and Doyle is still not quite right after his unavailability through illness.

“We hope those two turn a corner but Kai will be a few weeks.”

Chris Davies still has adequate left-back options despite natural defensive absences

In Wagner's absence, the aforementioned Laird put in an extremely impressive performance at left-back before his 64th-minute substitution for Jonathan Panzo, meaning that Davies may not be overly concerned with his current options to plug such a gap.

However, it will still be an annoyance to the Blues boss that all three of his natural left-backs are still unable to feature at present, with Cochrane also sidelined, whilst Lee Buchanan continues to work his way back to full fitness after a serious ACL injury which was sustained in December 2024.