George Hirst returns to the Town XI as Blues make seven changes for this lunchtime’s home game against Blackburn Rovers.

One-time Rovers loanee Hirst is back as the number nine having recovered from his groin injury with another one-time Blackburn loanee Christian Walton, Darnell Furlong, skipper Dara O’Shea, Leif Davis, Sindre Walle Egeli and Marcelino Nunez also returning to the team having been left out of the side which started last week’s 2-1 FA Cup victory over Blackpool.

Alex Palmer, Ashley Young, Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves, Wes Burns and Jack Clarke drop to the bench, while Kasey McAteer and Cedric Akpom are absent from the 20-man squad.

Blackburn make five changes from their on-penalties FA Cup defeat at Hull City last week with Sondre Tronstad, skipper Todd Cantwell, Sean McLoughlin, Yuki Ohashi and Moussa Baradi coming into the team. Lewis Miller and Kristi Montgomery miss out.

Town: Walton, Furlong, O’Shea (c), Kipre, Davis, Taylor, Matusiwa, Walle Egeli, Nunez, Philogene, Hirst. Subs: Palmer, Burns, Cajuste, Young, Johnson, Szmodics, Greaves, Azon, Clarke.

Blackburn: Toth, Atcheson, McLoughlin, Cashin, Gardner-Hickman, Tronstad, Baradji, Cantwell (c), De Neve, Henriksson, Ohashi. Subs: Michalski, Pickering, Ribeiro, O’Riordan, Pratt, Forshaw, Powell, Doherty, Jorgensen. Referee: Andrew Kitchen (Durham).

Photo: IMAGO/PPAUK via Reuters Connect