Birmingham City boss Steve Bruce chose leave Wilson Palacios out of his team for yesterday's 3-1 defeat at Everton following the kidnapping of his younger brother last week.

Bruce said: "His brother has been missing since last Monday, there is no change in the situation. A ransom has been paid but the authorities are nowhere nearer sorting it out.

"The lad travelled with us, but he was in no fit condition to have played in such circumstances. Such things are just alien to me, and everybody here.

"The lad has not had any sleep over the last few days, he is on the phone all the time and I don't know how you deal with something like that.

"His family do not want him to go back to Honduras, so we hope something can be sorted out soon. We hope for his sake and his family's that there is a good outcome.

"You get some strange things to deal with in management, but nothing as shocking as this. We hope the authorities do their job and they get his brother back."