Watford have no new injury concerns ahead of tomorrow’s Championship match at home to Birmingham City.

Lewis McGugan is expected to miss the next two matches at least with a thigh problem while Almen Abdi remains unavailable with an ongoing foot complaint.

It is still unclear whether Abdi will play again this season with head of medical Marco Cesarini expecting to have more news on the midfielder’s situation before Sunday.

Samba Diakite, Tommie Hoban and Essaid Belkalem have all recovered from injuries and are back in training but tomorrow’s game is expected to come too soon for the trio, who are still short of match fitness.

Cesarini said today (Monday): “Hoban is in full training and he needs more match fitness.

“He played 60 minutes ten days ago with the Under-21s. He is training every day and he is OK. He has had no setbacks.

“Belkalem is training with us but he has a lack of fitness so we have to work on his match sharpness.

“Diakite is OK, he trained today but again he needs to improve his fitness.

“Beppe [Sannino] has said he wants his players to be 100 per cent fit before they play. After tomorrow Diakite might be ready to be involved.”

Cristian Battocchio appeared to have a problem with his leg at the end of Saturday's match at Leicester City but he is fully fit while Arsenal loanee Chu-Young Park is included in the Hornets squad.

Birmingham had suffered three consecutive defeats at the end of January but may have turned a corner in their last two games with a draw at home to Derby County and a win at Charlton Athletic on Saturday.

“I think they have changed their system ,” Sannino said. “They were playing 4-4-2 and in the last game they played 4-3-3.

“It will be a very difficult game but as I have stressed many times before, the next game is always the toughest.”

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