Alfie Chang’s determination to regain fitness after a serious knee injury has caught the eye of new manager Chris Davies – but the midfielder is seemingly still some way off returning to the first team fold.
Blues have been without defensive midfield man Chang for almost a year now after he sustained an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament in late August 2023. The 21-year-old remains on the long road to recovery and hasn’t yet been able to train under Davies.
Giving a progress report on Chang, Davies told BirminghamLive: “He’s been out for a long time, I haven’t actually trained with him yet. He’s been outside and done a bit of running and he is building up his rehab, step by step.”
Chang - who made seven starts in the Championship for Blues before his injury – has been confined to the gym for the last 11 months. The midfielder cycled around Henley-in-Arden, where Blues’ first team is based, to maintain his fitness before being given the green light to jog a few months back.
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Davies added: “He’s working very hard. He’s the first one in the gym every morning that I see and I have heard great things about his attitude and everything else. He has to keep going, get himself fit, and see where he gets to.”
Chang has had a watching brief in pre-season as Paik Seung-ho and Jordan James have forged a partnership in midfield, albeit their futures are currently clouded with uncertainty. New signing Marc Leonard is waiting in the wings in what promises to be a stocked Blues engine room.