Birmingham City manager John Eustace says Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri must be brighter about avoiding the attention of referees.

Hannibal has made four starts in the Championship and has appeared in every match since signing on-loan for Brum.

Hannibal was substituted in the second half of victory over QPR, the player had received a yellow card earlier in the game and manager Eustance believed he was in danger of being sent off.

“I was contemplating bringing him [Hannibal] off at half-time, if I am going to be honest," Eustance said after the match. "I spoke to him, spoke to the staff and he assured me he'd be OK. I think it lasted about four minutes.

“It's something we have got to watch but he plays on the edge, that's why he's so good, a top player. I am certainly not going to stop him from doing what he does but he has to realise the importance of managing the games at times.

“He is a 19-year-old footballer, he is learning his trade and we are going to speak to him about it for sure. There were lots of cynical fouls going on in the first half from both teams, Hanni got booked early on, I get that.

“He didn't get sent off so it makes no difference to me, we brought him off because he was running the risk and that's it. He might have got sent off on another day and when he made that tackle I thought 'I have got to get him off'."