Quashie extends Birmingham stay

Quashie will now stay with Blues at least until the end of 2008

Birmingham City have extended the loan of midfielder Nigel Quashie from West Ham for a second month.

Quashie, 30, has been at St Andrew's since October after proving his fitness following a long-term foot injury.

"We've worked very hard to get Nigel to a level of fitness and we want to take our time with that," Blues boss Alex McLeish told BBC WM.

"Hopefully he's going to get much, much sharper and then we can look at extending it further."

Quashie returns to the Blues squad for Tuesday's home game with Ipswich after serving his one-match suspension for getting sent off in the 3-2 win over Charlton.

Nigel knows that he's missed an awful lot of football and he's now trying to impress.

Blues boss Alex McLeish

"Nigel's given us a fantastic contribution, the sending off was difficult but he made a couple of goals," McLeish added.

Quashie, who has won 14 caps for Scotland, was out for 19 months with a persistent foot problem while at Upton Park and McLeish said he was always keen to have the player around for a bit longer.

"Nigel knows that he's missed an awful lot of football and he's now trying to impress.

"It's about getting games under his belt and there's not any reason for us to rush into a long-term agreement."