McLeish waits on Hleb for Cup

Birmingham City midfielder Alexander Hleb should know on Wednesday whether he will be fit to face former club Arsenal in Sunday’s Carling Cup final.

The on-loan Barcelona player suffered a knee injury in the 3-0 FA Cup fifth-round win over Sheffield Wednesday and left St Andrew’s on crutches.

But initial fears that Hleb had sustained major ligament damage have proved unfounded after he underwent a scan.

Now Hleb is awaiting the verdict from a visit to a specialist in London on Tuesday to see if he can play in Birmingham’s first final appearance in 48 years.

“Alex has been down in London with the doctor to see a specialist and get a final assessment,” manager Alex McLeish said.

“He got a real clatter on the inside of his knee and we feared the worst, but we’re not ruling him out at this moment.”

“We’re just waiting on another expert opinion and hopefully we’ll know by lunchtime on Wednesday. We’re not ruling him out.”

“The scans showed that he has heavy bruising but we don’t think there’s a lot of damage to the ligaments, if at all.”

Striker Cameron Jerome and central defender Martin Jiranek are expected to be fit.

Jiranek missed the win over the Owls with a thigh injury while Jerome was with an ankle problem.

McLeish said: “Cameron has not trained as yet but we believe he and Martin will be okay.”

The former Scotland boss will be single-minded when selecting his side for the final.

He said: “It’s part of the job. It’s my job to pick the team that I feel is going to win the Carling Cup.”

“I have to pick a team that’s not influenced by the media, not influenced by the fact I like this player better than I like that player on a personal level.”

“It’s got to be picked fairly, as I do every single week.”

“I’m pretty sure of the nucleus of the team but we’ve still got to flesh it out a fair bit.”