Birmingham goal hero James McFadden is backing central defender Martin Taylor to put behind him the trauma of unintentionally breaking the leg of Arsenal striker Eduardo.
A distraught Taylor went to visit the Croatian international in a Birmingham hospital on Sunday before the player, who is 25 today, was transferred to a London hospital.
Taylor, who was red-carded by referee Mike Dean, was described as being "distraught" in the aftermath of the 2-2 draw at St Andrews as the extent of Eduardo's injury became clear.
And several Blues players have already condemned Gunners boss Arsene Wenger's initial comments in which he claimed "this guy (Taylor) should never play football again".
But McFadden, who scored both of City's goals against Arsenal, is confident Taylor will eventually be able to put the incident behind him.
He said: "Martin is not the type of player to go and deliberately injure someone. He doesn't have a history of being malicious.
"Martin is a gentle giant and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. Martin has to live with the fact he has broken someone's leg unintentionally
"Martin is cut up but he is a professional and he will bounce back."
Taylor will have to wait almost a month before he can return to action after collecting an automatic three-match ban for his sending-off.
He will be suspended for the home clashes with Tottenham and Newcastle and the away game with Portsmouth.
The next time he will be eligible to play is in the match at Reading on March 22.
(re-opens) Taylor's centre-back partner Liam Ridgewell said: "We will rally round Martin and try and help him. He is in a bad way. If he had meant it, he wouldn't have been in such a bad way.
"He is deeply sorry but it was a freak accident. Martin had tears in his eyes but we will get around him and help him. He has just gone in for a tackle."
(reopens) Taylor was greeted with a scrum of TV crews and Croatian journalists when he arrived at City's Wast Hills training ground this morning.
But he made no comment before driving into the players' car park and the indications are that the defender is unlikely to make any comment to the media today.
More news from SportingLife.com
