Birmingham's Taylor set for return after serving ban for Eduardo tackle

The centre-half, who has been at the centre of a huge outcry since the tackle that broke Arsenal striker Eduardo's ankle, will be an option for Alex McLeish after the Blues' skipper earned his tenth booking of the season at the Madjeski Stadium.

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Taylor made his comeback last week in a reserves' outing against Tottenham at Solihull Moors and would be a like-for-like replacement on the left-hand side of McLeish's defence.

But he is obviously short of match practice and it would represent a massive gamble by the former Scotland manager to throw him back into the fray against Manchester City.

McLeish does have other options. He could deploy either Stephen Kelly, Stuart Parnaby or Rafael Schmitz in Ridgewell's place, but he is likely to go for a straight swap, rather than play others out of position.

Meanwhile Olivier Kapo is poised to return to training today and could play a part in the game at home to City next weekend.

The former Juventus player has been sidelined since suffering a torn hamstring against Arsenal at St Andrews a month ago.

Blues have missed Kapo's attacking threat from the left, and Saturday's reversal at Reading means they are only point above the bottom three.

But the player who has scored five goals this season is now fully recovered.