Lee Bowyer reveals all on Brighton loanee's 'crazy' injury saga at Birmingham City

The 21-year-old joined the Championship club on loan for the remainder of the campaign on January 7, and the midfielder was expected to feature in the Blues' FA Cup third round tie at home to Plymouth Argyle a day later.

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But Richards, who spent last season on loan at League One Doncaster Rovers, suffered an unexpected and unlikely setback during his medical.

Speaking to the Birmingham Live, Bowyer said: “I wasn’t there when it happened, he jumped up in the air, there is a board, the players do this every day, like part of their warm-up and testing to see where they are at with their calves. He has jumped and landed on the edge of the board.

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“I have never heard anything like this. The players have done it a thousand times – it’s just this season, he did it ten times and then he does it.

"It’s crazy. I have never heard of a player getting injured in the medical.”

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The Albion loanee has since recovered from the injury and begun training with the Birmingham City first team with a view to making his long-awaited debut.

Bowyer said it would take a while for Richards to 'catch up' to the demands of the first team, but the former Leeds and Newcastle midfielder backed the young gun to make an impact at St Andrews.

He said: “He’s a good player and for what we are paying you ain’t bringing in a better player than Taylor.

"We didn’t think it was going to be this long. We would never have got a player of his quality in the final third.

"We want to try and improve the squad so are you going to bring in a worse player? The worse player might have played three or four more games which we expected at the time.

"I wouldn’t say we regret bringing him in because we ain’t seen him yet and when we do, see him fit and playing well, it will take him a little bit of game-time to catch up, but once you do see him fit I think we are all going to be happy with the decision in the end."

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