Birmingham City: John Eustace says Blues will get through difficult time
- Published
John Eustace's Blues have lost eight times in their last 10 Championship games
Birmingham City boss John Eustace says the struggling Championship side will get through this "difficult" time.
Blues, charged by the English Football League with alleged rule breaches as a result of an investigation into a failed takeover bid, have slipped worryingly down the Championship table.
They also have concerns over injuries to Dion Sanderson and Troy Deeney.
"We're in a difficult moment, but we'll get though. It's important we don't get too negative," Eustace said.
"It's a 46-game season. When we came in, we knew it was going to be difficult.
"What's going on off the field has nothing to do with me. My job is to get the players ready and prepared for games.
"We'll shield the players from that, of course we do. But we've now got big injuries as well."
Blues had sneaked into the Championship top 10 prior to losing their final game before the World Cup break - but they have now slipped to 19th, just seven points clear of danger.
Eustace's limited squad was already heavily reliant on their five loan players, but he lost two of them - Wolves defender Dion Sanderson with a back injury and Derby County midfielder Krystian Bielik - for Tuesday's trip to Norwich.
And after their 3-1 defeat at Carrow Road, he revealed he had also lost captain Troy Deeney with a "bad pull of his hamstring".
"The big disappointment," he said, "was finding out that Dion is going to be out for a number of weeks - and Troy is out for a big number of weeks too. These are massive characters to be missing from the team.
"I would say seven or eight weeks for both of them. And Krystian Bielik took a bad blow on Saturday against Huddersfield. He was touch and go to start but young Alfie Chang came in and stood up to the task very well. And George Hall was a positive for us too."
Eustace made four changes from Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Neil Warnock's Huddersfield and may feel the need to do so again for this Saturday's visit of sixth-placed Luton Town to St Andrew's.
That will be followed by two key games against fellow strugglers Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United.
Birmingham City boss John Eustace was talking to BBC Radio WM's Richard Wilford