Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish has hailed Mehdi Nafti as a "model" pro.

Eck is anxious about securing Nafti to a new deal and said: "We don't have an awful lot of options in central midfield. We are very short in that department. I tried to do something in January but to no avail.

"As a result, we've had three central midfielders vying for the two slots and Mehdi will come straight back in.

"We've had decent consistency from Jonty (Johnson) and Fabrice Muamba in terms of the job they've done for us but Mehdi is a model professional.

"He's never battered down my door and said, 'why am I not playing?"'