Birmingham City were left extremely unhappy on Wednesday night, with Chris Davies’ side suffering their worst performance in a long time as they were soundly defeated by Millwall at The Den.

Despite convincingly defeating the same opponents 4-0 at St. Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park on November 4th, the Blues saw their roles completely reversed in South London in midweek, as they rarely laid a glove on the Lions, who reduced the gap on the automatic promotion places to just four points with a well-deserved 3-0 victory.

Birmingham suffered their first Championship defeat since losing by the same scoreline to Watford at Vicarage Road on New Year’s Day, with Femi Azeez, Tristan Crama, and Jake Cooper scoring, while Jhon Solis, who had previously impressed since joining on loan from Girona FC last month, was shown a second yellow card after 53 minutes.

However, a bad night for West Midlands fans was made worse by the departure of another hugely influential January recruit, Kai Wagner.

The German full-back was signed from Philadelphia Union in the early days of the winter transfer window, and Davies was able to quickly address well-documented issues in his squad’s left-back department with the £2 million acquisition of his services.

However, with supporters already concerned that the result and nature of Blues’ performance against a side with Premier League ambitions demonstrated exactly why their club might miss out on the top six, they were left fearing the worst when the 29-year-old was replaced by the returning Ethan Laird with 22 minutes remaining in the match.

And it’s fair to say that Davies’ initial thoughts on the German’s injury will only heighten those fears ahead of next Monday’s crucial encounter with second-placed Middlesbrough in B9.

Chris Davies’ concerns over Kai Wagner, Birmingham City injury update following Millwall loss

As previously said, Davies has struggled with availability concerns throughout his defensive unit this season, and Wagner’s first blow since joining the Blues last month has just added to the list.

While it would have been a positive for supporters to see the aforementioned Laird return to action for the second time in a matter of days after a lengthy absence due to a hamstring injury, the fact that he was replacing the injured Wagner was far from ideal.

In just 11 appearances, the full-back has offered Birmingham with a strong attacking threat from deep while also receiving acclaim for his defensive solidity.

However, he will now join his left-back teammates, Alex Cochrane and Lee Buchanan, on the sidelines, with Davies noting that the early indicators of his injury, received in a clash with Ryan Leonard, are not encouraging.

“I’m not sure if it’s a dislocation, but it’s a heavy whack, and it doesn’t seem good right now. “We’ll find out more about it in the morning,” added Davies.

Chris Davies will be heavily frustrated by fresh Birmingham City left-back dilemma

Wagner’s setback comes at a bad time for the Blues, as Cochrane is expected to be out until April with an ankle ailment, while Buchanan is still not ready to play after incurring a catastrophic ACL injury 14 months ago.

The aforementioned Laird has played left-back on occasion, as has Jack Robinson during his Sheffield United days, but neither are naturals in this position of the game, making it a’square peg in a round hole’.