Birmingham midfielder Sebastian Larsson's knee injury is not as bad as first feared.

The Sweden international limped out of Monday's 1-1 home draw with Newcastle after being on the receiving end of a challenge from Nicky Butt.

Blues boss Alex McLeish diagnosed the problem as medial-ligament damage after the game but Larsson could be fit to face Reading in Saturday's Barclays Premier League relegation clash.

Larsson said: "It is not a bad one. It was checked at half-time and it opened up a bit so we didn't want to risk making it any worse. I've had it before on this knee so it shouldn't be a big problem."

A relieved McLeish said: "We missed the drive and thrust of Larsson when he came off the other night.

"His form has been fantastic in recent weeks, his goals and his delivery from the wide areas, his work-rate. I think he has had a fantastic season and we would have hated to miss him.

"We are a small squad and don't have the strength in cope if we are losing two or three of the players who are starting in the team every week."

Larsson is confident Blues can triumph against the Royals as they look to build on a run of just one defeat in the last six games.

He said: "All the games are going to be massive now. We are not losing many at the moment and we are feeling confident so we are definitely going to go for the three points down there at Reading.

"Any team that puts back-to-back wins together now is going to be in a good position. There are so many of us involved in it, a couple of good results and you can move clear.

"We are capable of doing it. We have had a way of staying above the relegation zone for most of the season and we are going to make sure we keep it that way.

"We viewed the draw with Newcastle as a positive rather than negative result in that it moved us a point further away from the bottom three."

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