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Ferguson to play through pain for Birmingham

Barry Ferguson is ready to play with a broken rib to help Birmingham's fight against relegation © PA Photos

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• Profile: Barry Ferguson

Barry Ferguson will undergo a painkilling injection on a broken rib to ensure he is able to continue aiding Birmingham City in their bid to beat relegation from the Premier League.

The Scotland international picked up the injury during the Carling Cup final victory over Arsenal at Wembley at the end of February, an injury that forced him to miss last weekend's loss to West Brom and will see him sit out Wednesday's trip to Everton.

McLeish admits that if the club's league situation was more stable he would have no intention of risking the 33-year-old for a number of games to come, but with the Blues currently one point adrift of safety in the table Ferguson has told the club he is prepared to play through the pain to help the cause.

"If we were in mid-table, like at this stage last season, we would definitely not play Barry," McLeish said. "But he wants to play. Barry said he can't sit about, he just wants to play.

"He has volunteered to take the injection. I think it will happen later in the week to allow things to settle down.

"There's not much you can do in terms of strapping up ribs and things like that, but the injection kind of freezes that side of his rib cage and gives it protection.

"It's Barry's decision, definitely. He did something similar when at Rangers. He's a brave boy. He showed his pain threshold in playing for an hour of the Carling Cup final with the injury."

McLeish believes Ferguson's decision, following in the footsteps of a number of his team-mates this season, exemplifies the spirit within the side.

"This group of players reminds me of the squad I was involved with as a player at Aberdeen," McLeish said. "The guys in that team played through injuries as well.

"Sometimes we did it and maybe we were thinking 'Maybe we shouldn't have played today' when you've had an indifferent game. But normally most of the time it worked and this group of players have also got some character to play through the injuries.

"You look at guys like big Roger Johnson. You think he is going to be out the next week and then he's fine again. He never trained in the six days leading up to the cup final and that's the first time I've seen him out of training for as long as that.

"Liam Ridgewell is the same. He needed an injection in his groin to play just before kick-off against West Brom."

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