Steve Bruce insists Sone Aluko has a future at Birmingham City.

The young striker signed on-loan with Aberdeen last month and Bruce says: "No, Sone hasn't gone up there with a view to us selling him.

"As with a lot of the younger players we have here, I like them to go and play somewhere if they're not quite ready or are on the fringes of it.

"It does them a world of good, like it did Neil Kilkenny a couple of seasons ago at Oldham for instance.

"Once the younger players have played in the reserves or youth for so long, they can get set in their ways.

"They need to go and play 'proper' football. It will be interesting to see how Sone does, and we hope he performs well and benefits from the loan."