McLeish makes Blues return
Birmingham goalkeeper Jack Butland will face Nottingham Forest despite joining Stoke on transfer deadline day.
The 19-year-old agreed a move to the Premier League club but was immediately loaned back to the Blues for the remainder of the season.
Striker Wes Thomas is set to make his debut after joining on-loan from Bournemouth until the summer.
Thomas, 26, has already enjoyed successful loan spells with both Portsmouth and Blackpool this season.
Blues trio Marlon King, Curtis Davies and Chris Burke all remain at the club after a number of bids for their services were rejected on Thursday.
News that they will remain at St Andrews at least until the summer will be a huge boost for manager Lee Clark, who insisted he didn't want to let any of them go.
Akwasi Asante, Darren Ambrose, David Murphy, Stephen Carr and Will Packwood remain sidelined.
Alex McLeish takes charge of Forest at his former club amid rumours of a bust-up with club owners.
McLeish, in charge at St Andrew's between November 2007 and June 2011, saw his deadline-day move for Peterborough's George Boyd fall through over an eye test.
The Scot is waiting to see whether he will be able to include Adlene Guedioura as part of the Reds' travelling party.
The midfielder is due back in Nottingham following Algeria's elimination from the African Cup of Nations in South Africa.
McLeish also hopes to have Kuwaiti goalkeeper Khaled Al-Rashidi on the bench as cover for Karl Darlow after the 25-year-old this week moved to the City Ground on a free transfer from Al Arabi.
On-loan defender Daniel Ayala (hamstring) and striker Marcus Tudgay (collarbone) remain unavailable.
Source: PA
