Scott Parker gives Nathan Redmond update amid Birmingham City return rumours
Birmingham City were linked with a romantic move to bring Nathan Redmond back to St Andrew's last month. The winger and Blues academy product has spent the last 12 years away from his boyhood club, most of it in the Premier League with Norwich City and Southampton. He left for a brief experience of Turkey with Besiktas in the Super Lig, but returned in the summer of 2023 when joining newly promoted Burnley.
Redmond has had to contend with all sorts of injury woe since moving to Turf Moor, however; indeed 2024 was practically a write off with only 23 minutes of football, and they came a year ago in the 1-0 FA Cup third round defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. It was hoped that he might have made his long awaited return before now, and Redmond did join the Clarets for three games in November but remained an unused substitute on each occasion.
The 30-year-old, it was suggested at the back end of 2024, could rejoin promotion chasing Blues on a loan basis for the second half of the season; Chris Davies has endured some pretty bad luck when it comes to the fitness and availability of his existing wide options this season. Scott Wright has only just returned from a lengthy spell out, but Keshi Anderson has picked up an injury and even Emil Hansson - who'd only just returned - is back on the sidelines.
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Indeed it's likely that on the flanks is where Blues will be eager to address on the recruitment front this month, and it led to links with Redmond, who is out of contract in the summer - although Burnley, themselves eyeing an instant return to the Premier League under Scott Parker, have the option to extend the deal by a further year.
Having come close to returning to action around a month ago, Redmond then suffered a frustrating injury setback and has been absent from each of the Clarets' last seven matches. It was predicted, though, that the setback wasn't too serious and that, all being well, Redmond might be in a position to return to the squad in the New Year. Burnley contest their Lancashire derby with Blackburn on Saturday and then head to Reading in the FA Cup.
“Nathan picked up a little bit of an injury in his calf,” Parker told the Burnley Express in mid-December. “We just need to tread carefully with that because he’s been out for some time. It’s not a significant injury and not one that we see will keep him out for too long, but after coming off the back of a serious injury there’s a slight issue there which we need to manage to the best we can. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks he will be back.”
