Skipper’s nose injury was lucky break says Blues boss
GARRY Monk reckons Birmingham City captain Michael Morrison can forget about a career in modelling after breaking his nose in the win over Rotherham!
Morrison’s 150th game for the club ended prematurely when the centreback had to be replaced by Marc Roberts 14 minutes from time.
Luckily for Blues, Morrison’s injury did not change the face of the result at St Andrew’s, despite a late fightback from the visitors. And he should be ready for action when Blues return to duty away to Stoke City a week on Saturday.
“Morro has got a broken nose,” manager Monk confirmed. “It’s a good time to have it, to be honest, with the international break.
“It’s nothing serious and we’ll patch him up and he’ll be ready to train next week.
“His modelling career is out of the question now, but I think it’s his hair that Morro is more worried about!”
Monk was forced to watch his team’s first home win of the season from the stands after being hit with a one-game touchline ban.
He had been reprimanded by the Football Association for his furious reaction to Maikel Kieftenbeld’s red card at Brentford last week.
Under the terms of the ban, Monk was prohibited from dishing out direct instructions to the players during the match, but he was allowed to communicate over the phone with his trusted No.2 Pep Clotet.
The pair have worked together for close to five years. While in charge of Swansea, Monk promoted Clotet to assistant manager in May 2014. He was then drafted into Monk’s backroom staff at Leeds United in June 2016.
Monk also turned to the Spaniard when he took over at St Andrew’s in March following the sacking of Steve Cotterill.
Given their tight working relationship, Monk knew he could rely on Clotet to make the right calls from the dugout if ever there was a problem with communication.
“We know what we’re doing, it’s clear what we need to do on the pitch and we always plan for different sce- narios,” Monk said. “We’ve worked with each other a long time now.”
Lukas Jutkiewicz was the star of the show as Blues eased past the Millers 3-1 to move up to 17th in the table. The former Burnley hitman struck the first hat-trick of his career to take his goals tally for the season up to six.
“We are delighted for him,” Monk said. “We were clinical, which in the other games we haven’t been. Good finishes, good goals, but the most important bit was the three points. It was not spectacular, but solid.
“It was about getting the job done, getting three points and going into the international break in front of our fans and giving them the win.”