A number of Blues stars temporarily swapped the colours of their club side for the colours of their international sides over the past week and all but on loan midfielder Salif Diao have reported back to training this week, injury free. Martin Jol will however be without Pedro Mendes, who has a broken toe, and Thimothee Atouba who begins a three-match ban for an elbowing offence during Spurs' last game against Manchester City. Spurs (from): Robinson, Cerny, Kelly, Pamarot, Gardner, King, Naybet, Edman, Atouba, Davies, Davis, Ziegler, Brown, Carrick, Defoe, Keane, Kanoute, Mido.
Diao has a calf injury and will not be considered for the game against Spurs whilst Steve Bruce will make a late decision on whether or not Stan Lazaridis is to play after his long flight back from Australia on Thursday evening.
The London side have also had a large contigent of their playing staff away on international duty this week but no serious injuries have been reported amongst their ranks.
Blues (from): Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Martin Taylor, Pennant, Johnson, Clemence, Anderton, Carter, Lazaridis, Heskey, Pandiani, Nafti, Gray, Tebily, Morrison, Blake, Vaesen.