Birmingham City's record signing Clinton Morrison has hit out at former club Crystal Palace for freezing him out of pre-season training. Blues manager Steve Bruce finally concluded a summer long chase to sign Morrison last week in a £4million deal which saw Andy Johnson head in the opposite direction to Selhurst Park.
But the Republic of Ireland striker is behind where he wants to be in terms of fitness, and is now struggling to be fit for the start of the Premiership season. It was a similar scenario to the 'gardening leave' that Bruce was put on by Palace while he sorted out his switch from south London to St Andrews mid-way through last season.
Morrison revealed: "I thought it was well out of order to be honest. The manager and chairman told me they thought it was best if I stayed away from the club while the transfer was being sorted out. I found that Palace had suddenly put me on 'gardening leave' so, instead of training with them and playing in pre-season matches, I was working out in the gymnasium on my own. What it meant was that I was losing a little bit of pre-season fitness which I'm now having to build-up again at Birmingham. But my target is to play in the opening Premiership match of the season at Arsenal."
Morrison was stretchered off in Saturday's pre-season friendly with Stoke but suffered nothing more serious than a dead leg.
Filed by Shane Murray
