Blues hoping Jay will be okay for Stoke trip

JAY Stansfield is progressing well in his recovery from an ankle injury and is ‘close’ to returning according to Birmingham City boss Chris Davies.

- By ALEX DICKEN

Blues were defeated at Leicester City without their star striker before the international break after he injured his ankle in the Carabao Cup exit to Port Vale.

The break arrived at the right time for Stansfield who has used the past two weeks to complete his rehabilitation.

Blues travel to Stoke City on Saturday and Davies, who conducted his pre-match press conference yesterday afternoon, hasn’t ruled Stansfield out. He said: “Jay has been in rehab since that knock and he’s done all of the stuff that he’s needed to do, so he’s getting there step by step. He’s close. We will see how he goes in the next few days.”

Davies provided a more definitive response when asked about Demarai Gray’s fitness. Gray suffered a shoulder injury against Leicester but battled through to complete the 90 minutes,

“Dimmy is fine,” Davies added. “He had that (knock) on his shoulder and it looked a really sore one, but he got his treatment and that’s done. He's recovered fine in the last week or so, so he’s absolutely fine.”