Garry O'Connor has been out since injuring his groin at Loftus Road

Birmingham City's automatic promotion hopes have been given a boost with the return to full fitness of strikers Garry O'Connor and Kevin Phillips.

O'Connor, who has missed five months of the season after undergoing groin surgery, played 25 minutes in Blues' 2-0 win at Doncaster on Saturday night.

And Phillips could start for the first time since tearing a hamstring against Nottingham Forest on 14 February.

Without the injured pair Blues have scored just 44 goals this season.

Phillips is still Blues' top scorer this season with 13 goals in 30 league appearances, eight of which have been from the bench.

And O'Connor had scored six goals in 12 games before being injured in the pre-match warm-up at QPR on 28 October.

In training this week Garry's been very bright. The question is whether we start people like him and Kevin Phillips Birmingham boss Alex McLeish

But Cameron Jerome has only scored six times in 36 appearances, while Carlos Costly has yet to score in eight games since signing for Blues on deadline day on 2 February.

And that has been a contributory factor in Blues' 44 goals, the second-lowest tally of any team in the top half of the Championship.

Blues boss Alex McLeish told BBC WM: "It was a case of big Garry getting confidence in himself and believing that the groin area was strong enough to withstand challenges again and strike through the ball.

"In the training sessions this week he's been very bright. The question is whether we start people like him and Kevin Phillips."

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