Kevin Phillips

Kevin Phillips returns to the Blues squad for Saturday's Barclays Premier League game against Everton.

The striker has recovered from the hamstring problem which kept him out of Tuesday night's win against Portsmouth.

Another player available for the Toffees visit is midfielder Lee Bowyer, who missed the trip to the south coast because of illness.

Regarding Stuart Parnaby, Blues are still unsure how serious the ankle injury is that he sustained at Fratton Park and Gregory Vignal is still recovering from a calf injury.

"Gregory Vignal and Kevin Phillips trained today," said boss Alex McLeish.

"Kevin had a wee niggle on his hamstring which occurred when he came on at the weekend.

"He was not quite ready for the midweek trip, but he will be in the squad on Saturday

"Vignal is a little bit short of joining us because he had a niggle in his calf.

"Bowyer was ill at the start of the week, but we welcome him back into the squad.

"Parnaby took a bad one to his ankle and I'm not sure how long he'll be out, because we're waiting on the results of a scan which will take place tomorrow."

Garry O'Connor

Meanwhile on the long term injury list Lee Carsley (ankle) and Garry O'Connor (hip) continue to make good progress.

"Carsley is working hard now and is back to a good level," said McLeish.

"Maybe a week on Monday he might rejoin the group in terms of training and kicking the ball again.

"He's been kicking it lightly and doing some running and getting his stamina back.

"O'Connor is a wee bit further away than that and is still doing his rehab.

"He's looking like the Incredible Hulk with the stuff he's done in the gym!

"But he's got a lot of work to do in terms of his running.

"He may be back before the end of the season, but it's going to be late in the day - maybe the middle of April and of course the season finishes in early May.