Blues want to keep Hunt

11:40pm Tuesday 2nd December 2008

NICKY Hunt is poised to extend his loan spell at Birmingham City.

The full-back limped out of the Blues’ 1-1 draw with Wolves on Saturday with a hamstring injury but has impressed manager Alex McLeish to such a degree that he is looking to keep him at St Andrew’s for another month at least.

Hunt is yet to play for Wanderers this season and was loaned out to ease the Midlands club’s injury problems at full-back.

Both Stephen Kelly and Stuart Parnaby are now approaching full fitness but, provided he can prove his fitness, McLeish is hoping Wanderers will allow him to stay beyond Saturday’s home game with Watford.

“We have to be thinking about keeping Nicky around,” he said. “He looked great against Wolves, he brought his Premiership experience to the team and he was a threat going forward and it was such a shame to lose him.

“His hamstring injury was serious enough to take him off but hopefully it's not too bad for Nicky, he's got another game left for us.”