Dann out for rest of season

photo courtesy SportyDesktops

Premier League - Dann out for rest of season - Yahoo! Eurosport

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish confirmed central defender Scott Dann is likely to be out of action for the remainder of the season with his severe hamstring problem.

But he is not looking to bring in a new centre-back and has faith in Czech international Martin Jiranek to provide back-up for Roger Johnson and Liam Ridgewell.

Forget about Jiranek, the real value here is in David Murphy who will start at left back and is only 4.02. That's great value on what is historically a very stingy defence. However...

The caveat is that 1) Birmingham haven't kept a clean sheet since shutting out Manchester City on November 13, and 2) their next two Premier League matches are at Manchester United and home to Manchester City. So I would suggest a wait-and-see attitude. However...

In February, Birmingham have a massive six matches, with the most daunting opponent being at Chelsea at the end of the month. So assuming Murphy is still affordable - and by dint of the schedule you have to think he will be barring a fluke goal or some such - that's when you'll want to buy.