Maxime Colin: Birmingham City defender to see specialist over Achilles injury

Max Colin went off two minutes into the second half in Friday night's 1-0 defeat by West Brom at The Hawthorns

Birmingham City full-back Maxime Colin faces a short spell on the sidelines after finally succumbing to a painful Achilles tendon injury.

The 29-year-old Frenchman, now is in his fifth season at Blues, has missed only a handful of league games in that time and is approaching 200 appearances for the Championship club.

But Blues boss Lee Bowyer says he has been playing through the pain barrier.

"Max has had this problem for a while now," Bowyer told BBC Radio WM.

"He's struggling. All credit to him. He's been trying to play through the pain barrier and we've been trying to manage the situation.

"But you could see the other night at West Brom that he wasn't right and it's come to the point now where we have to do something to address it and get it right.

"It shouldn't need surgery. I don't think it's that serious, but he'll have to go and see a specialist to see how we can go forward with it.

"He's going to be a miss. He's what we call a low-maintenance, high-output player. A minimum 7 out of 10 every game."

For Wednesday's night game at Huddersfield, Bowyer has the option of persisting with Jeremie Bela, who replaced Colin when he came off two minutes into the second half in Friday night's 1-0 defeat by West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.

Should Bowyer make changes?

Bowyer also has to decide whether to make changes as he tries to find a way to end the goal drought Blues have suffered since their promising start to the season faded in mid-September.

Since Troy Deeney's late penalty in the 4-1 home defeat by Fulham, Blues have not scored in five matches - and have slumped to 19th in the table.

August transfer window signing Deeney has only started three games since the dream move from Watford to his boyhood club - and did not make it off the bench at all on Friday night.

Bowyer said: "Troy will still play a massive role for us this season. But it's been difficult for him. That change and the expectation. A lot of pressure has been put on his shoulders.

"Sometimes you can try to push yourself and give too much. I had a chat with him last week and told him to 'get back to what you're good at and forget everything else'."

Bowyer made a big call on Friday night by leaving out skipper Harlee Dean, who was on the bench.

"He took it well," said Bowyer. "And that's the way he should react, as the captain of this football club."