Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish admits his preparations for their Premiership kickoff at Manchester United are in "crisis".

He said: "It's rocky at the moment. We have some problems. We have had misfortune in the centre of defence. At this moment, I don't have a clue how we will line up.

"I've not been able to work with Scott Dann or Roger Johnson. That has disrupted the game plan in defence. Martin Taylor has gone down with an ankle ligament problem. Liam Ridgewell is recovering from his broken leg and Giovanny Espinoza is off the pace.

"Franck Queudrue has had to go in and play at centre half. He's going to play in the friendly against Sporting Gijon and he's not fully fit. Johnson could be fit for Old Trafford. But he's had six different partners in pre-season which, frankly, is ridiculous. It did cross my mind about playing someone like O'Connor there. He's big, ugly and daft enough. But we will see what happens.

"We need someone to come in and do a Superman act for us. I don't know whether we have enough bodies. I'm going into the friendly against Gijon with 14 fit outfield players and I'm going to add a couple of kids to that.

"The fans will be looking at it and thinking, 'What's going on down there?' I'm sure Man Utd, if they had four out, would be saying the same thing, that it's a crisis situation."