Following Alain Perrin's high intensity two hour training session on Tuesday a fair few players have found themselves consigned to the treatment room. Taylor, Stefanovic, Skopelitis and Hughes are all amongst those who picked up knocks (although all hope to be fit for the weekend), but one player who definitely won't feature against Birmingham is Yakubu (who had a goal disallowed at St Andrews last season). He picked up a gash to his achilles tendon against Charlton and it's still not sure how long it'll be until he returns; even next week's game with Liverpool is a doubt.
Although he's our leading scorer this season and got one on Saturday, personally I reckon it's a blessing in disguise. The guy needs clearly needs a rest after playing thirty-two games for us so far this season and although substituted in a few of them, the fact he's been practically ever-present seems to be showing in his lacklustre performances. As well as a general lack of energy his touch has been poor, his strike-rate (two goals in open play since the turn of the year) far from ideal and he just hasn't looked interested. The likes of Kamara and LuaLua have been putting him to shame with the way they constantly chase and harry the ball, although until recently Yakubu could defend himself by saying that they didn't score doing that whilst he was still scoring playing in his laid back fashion.
But now all that seems to be changing; LuaLua has 2 in 2 and Kamara scored with a fine header at the weekend. I was always hoping that maybe Perrin would drop the Yak and give Kamara a start, as he certainly deserves it for the way he changed the game on Saturday against Charlton. Let's also not forget that Kammy scored against Spurs and was dropped, as well as scoring a hat trick for the reserves and still not making the starting line-up. He must've been starting to wonder what he had to do to get his chance whilst the Yak painfully went through the motions every week.
The good thing about the potential of a Lua and Kamara partnership is that although they both have pace and trickery, they're not identical players and both have individual aspects to bring to the table. Kamara comes deep to pick up the ball and can play the killer pass, whilst Lua is the pacey demon who would be good getting in behind the Birmingham strikers. I'm looking forward to seeing them link up and, although some are disappointed Yak will be out, personally I think it's a case of "God doesn't close a door without opening a window".
It could be the start of a beautiful friendship for yet another African strike partnership at Pompey.