Championship

Birmingham City: Fans react joyfully to Maikel Kieftenbeld’s return from injury

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Image for Birmingham City: Fans react joyfully to Maikel Kieftenbeld’s return from injury

Some Birmingham City fans have been sharing joyful reactions on social media to the return of midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld, following the Dutchman’s long-term injury layoff. 

Kieftenbeld made his first Blues appearance in over 10 months in this past Wednesday’s Championship game versus Millwall. The 29-year-old had been out of action since the seventh of April 2019, when he suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in action for the Blues versus Leeds United. It was originally reported that Kieftenbeld’s injury would see him miss six to nine months of action, however, the midfielder ultimately ended up missing over 10 months of game time due to his injury. 

Following his return from injury, the 29-year-old midfielder described his happiness at finally making his return in an interview that has been shared by Birmingham City’s official Twitter account. Kieftenbeld describes his frustration at not featuring in the Blues’ most recent two games prior to Wednesday’s clash with Millwall, despite sitting on the bench for both games, as well as his joy at finally returning to the pitch in the recent interview.

Some Birmingham City fans shared similarly joyful reactions to Kieftenbeld’s return from injury on social media in response to his recent post-match interview. Read the positive reactions of some Blues fans to the 29-year-old’s return in the tweets below.

What do we think?

Having featured in 35+ Championship games in each of his previous four seasons at St. Andrew’s, Kieftenbeld’s frustration at not featuring in the Blues’ recent games versus Brentford and Sheffield Wednesday may be understandable, considering those games saw the Dutchman return to the Blues’ bench for the first time in just over 10 months. 

However, after a total of 311 days on the sidelines, the 29-year-old midfielder can now put his injury behind him following his 72nd-minute substitute appearance in Birmingham’s midweek game with Millwall. Considering the consistently high number of appearances that Kieftenbeld has made in each of his previous four seasons with the Blues, he may be keen to quickly build on his first appearance of the 2019/20 season now that he has gotten back to the action.

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