Now he is facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines after being one of the main inspirations behind City’s recent revival of three successive victories.

Bruce already has another creative midfielder in Muzzy Izzet out for a month after knee surgery, while Clinton Morrison is his only fully fit striker for tomorrow’s trip to Fulham after Emile Heskey picked up a tight hamstring in the St Stephen's Day clash.

Bruce said: “At least with the transfer window coming up, it does give us an option to bring people in and we have to look at that now.

“I didn’t want to and was basically going to go with what I’ve got player-wise for the rest of the season. But with the injuries I’ve now got, we might just have to do something.”

Bruce admitted: “Dunny’s injury has gutted us all really. It’s the first time in a year that he’s played six games on the trot.

“You are thinking he is due a little bit of luck because you can see what he gives us.

“He is a huge talent and to be without him is going to be difficult. It took the gloss off a really good performance.

“We don’t know long he will be out. But that’s five times it has gone and he is devastated because it keeps recurring.

“We’ve lost Mikael Forssell, Clinton Morrison and Dunny this season during the first half and the impact of that is only now are we just starting to kick-start our season. Now we’ve got another real kick in the teeth again.”

Birmingham fully deserved the three points with Morrison making it four goals in four starts and Heskey adding a second before being taken off early in the second half.

Boro boss Steve McClaren, who is also hampered severely by injuries, is now facing the prospect of being without striker Mark Viduka for a few weeks with a hamstring problem.

But he made no excuses for an inept showing in which his side never matched the intensity of Birmingham’s performance.

McClaren said: “I am very disappointed and I’ve got a group of players who are just as disappointed because it was a great opportunity which we didn’t take.

“The performance was poor and well below our normal standards. If we’ve got aspirations as to where we want to be, and a lot of people are talking about Champions League football, you can’t afford off days like that.

“We’ve said to the players it’s not good enough but fortunately we’ve got another game in two days against Norwich in which we need to see a reaction and get back on track.

“We’ve done it before after disappointments and we have to do it again. It was one of those days.

“We didn’t match the intensity of Birmingham from the beginning, allowed them to dictate and by that time we were two goals down.

“We had a lot of possession in the second half but poor defending has cost us two goals and you can’t afford to give two goals away away from home.

“We are all going to lick our wounds. Fortunately we’ve got the chance quickly to rectify things and put in a better performance.”