Birmingham City yesterday confirmed on their website that long term injury absentees Gavin Gunning and Matt Green are well on their road to recovery, swapping trainers for boots and running on the training pitches at Wast Hills. For Matt Green it represents another step forwards following 15 months on the sidelines after injurying his cruciate ligaments in November 2013.

It can’t have been an easy year or so for the former Mansfield forward. Having only made ten league appearances for Blues, Green injured his cruciate ligaments in training and had to watch from the sidelines as Blues struggled to stay in the Championship. It’s not like it’s been straightforward road to recovery either, with the Bath-born front man having a few injury setbacks on the way which have lengthened his spell on the sidelines.

Now the 28-year-old is into the last six months of his contract knowing that he has to prove not only his fitness but his worth to a new manager to extend his spell with the club. As the season ticks on the time he has left to do this is shortening and I think it’s going to prove to be hard to get back into the team; Blues have consistently played with one up front this season and Green has Donaldson, Thomas, Zigic and Novak in front of him in the pecking order. There is always a chance he could go out on loan but with only a month left of the loan window the question is if another team are going to take a chance on a striker without first team action in so long – and even if he does get a loan move, will that be enough to convince the management of his worth?

Gavin Gunning is in a similar position. Signed on a twelve month deal at the start of the season having failed a medical at Sheffield Wednesday, the Dublin-born centre back got injured in his first game of the season – ironically to the other knee than the one that caused him to fail the medical – and now he faces a fight to get fit again with a slew of defenders in front of him. Gunning’s task of getting into the side is made slightly easier than Green’s by the injuries to Morrison and Packwood and the fact that Blues rely on two centre-halves each game but he too faces an uphill task to convince the coaching staff he’s worthy of another twelve months.

This is where football is tough and where it’s obvious there is no sentiment as in my opinion, I think neither should be offered new deals. While I think Green could have been a decent acquisition he’s been unlucky with injury and he’s getting to an age where he should be at his prime. I don’t think he’ll be up to speed properly before the start of next season and I think Blues need to start preparing now for next year; although I think that next year we’ll definitely be without Zigic and possibly without Thomas or Novak I can’t see Green having done enough to show Rowett he’s worth another contract – particularly if Rowett has ideas on who he would like to bring in.

Gunning is worse; at 24 his career should be ahead of him but his injury problems go against him massively. The decision to sign him in hindsight looks a bit daft as we got less than a game out of him – with him failing a medical people could point to that and say it was obvious it was going to happen but it’s just unlucky when it’s the other knee that goes. Again, I can see Blues losing Robinson (to old age finally), Edgar and Spector at the end of this season but I can’t see Rowett going with the former Blackburn Rovers man – particularly as he has been seen to pick up some talent in Morrison and potentially Kiernan.

Blues have already started telling their younger players who hasn’t made the grade; I wonder if it would be a kindness or just cruel to indicate to these two if they no longer have a future with the club.

Tags: Gavin Gunning, Matt Green