Ferguson to play through the pain

Barry Ferguson
12 April 2012

Birmingham are set to gamble on influential midfielder Barry Ferguson playing with a broken rib in their bid to secure Barclays Premier League survival.

He missed Saturday's 3-1 home defeat to West Brom and will also be absent from Wednesday's clash with Everton at Goodison Park. But Ferguson has agreed to undergo a painkilling injection later in the week in a bid to be fit enough to rejoin City's battle to stay up.

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

He added: "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."

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