Birmingham defender Martin Taylor's comeback to senior football has been delayed because of the form of current centre-back pairing Liam Ridgewell and Radhi Jaidi.
Taylor is unlikely to even travel to Saturday's match at Reading as Blues manager Alex McLeish wants to deploy other players as his substitutes to give him cover in other areas.
The former Blackburn player has served a three match ban for his sending-off against Arsenal when his challenge on Eduardo resulted in the striker suffering a broken leg.
Taylor played 90 minutes for the reserves against Tottenham in midweek but is set to have to wait before returning to first team reckoning.
Blues manager Alex McLeish said: "At the moment, I am satisfied with the central defensive performances. That is what happens sometimes when you go out of the team, unluckily through suspension or injury.
"Someone comes in and it is up to the person who comes in to make it hard for me to change things - and the two guys in the centre of defence have done well.
"I need to make sure I cover myself in other areas and it is doubtful Martin will travel with us.
"He is quite a fit, big guy but, until anyone gets back in the first team, it is right they should play some reserve games, Queudrue, De Ridder and Schmitz have all been playing there and it is the beauty of reserve team football."
Midfielder Sebastian Larsson could be fit to face Reading after fears he had suffered knee ligament damage against Newcastle proved unfounded.
McLeish said: "We are waiting on Larsson. We will give him every chance. We thought he had ligament damage when he left the field on Monday night but it has settled down a bit.
"I don't think we needed to do the scans in the end. It was just straightforward physiotherapy diagnosis and he has made great progress. He is a quick healer and he has been playing excellently for us over the past few weeks.
"We've had players fitting into the system and he has carried it out superbly.
"For his size he is also very competitive in the air and has been very influential for us in recent weeks. We will wait until the last minute to see if he is fit."
Midfielder Olivier Kapo is set to return to training on Monday after nearly a month out of action with a hamstring injury.
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