Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies has revealed why Super Eagles defender Bright Osayi-Samuel has had limited game time in the EFL Championship this season, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 27-year-old joined the Blues on a free deal from Fenerbahce in the summer, penning a three-year contract with the four-time Championship winners.
However, Osayi has struggled to secure a starting spot. Since the start of October, the former QPR man has only started one game for Birmingham.
Bright Osayi-Samuel has played just 15 minutes of football in Birmingham City's last five games.
In total, he's played 667 minutes of Birmingham's 17 Championship games this season, starting just 8.Of the 8 starts, he completed 90 minutes four times.
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Despite limited playing time, the former Fenerbahce defender was included in Nigeria's squad during the November International break.
He played 109 minutes against Gabon, but was on the bench against DR Congo as the Super Eagles missed out on another World Cup.
With Benjamin Frederick ruled out of the AFCON 2025 tournament due to a knee problem and Ola Aina in the battle against time to recover from injury, Osayi's odds of making the tournament are very high, but he still wants a run of games before heading to Morocco.
Why Osayi-Samuel has had little game time at Birmingham
A slight injury at the start of October saw the versatile full-back miss out on first-team football, although his spot at right-back was a battle between him and former Manchester United defender Ethan Laird.
Laird then suffered a hamstring injury, and Japanese midfielder Tomoki Iwata became the club's makeshift right-back and has done a decent job there.
“Bright has been brought in to be an important player for us,” Blues boss Chris Davies said in quotes revealed by Birmingham Mail.
“He made a good start, then with injuries he found himself out of the team.
“Tomoki was moved to right-back because both right-backs were injured, and Tomoki has been one of, if not the best, full-back in the league in that time; he’s been exceptional.
“There’s an opportunity for Bright to come in and show what he can do because he’s an international player, he’s played at a really good level, and he’s been working well.
“That’s the nature of being a footballer, you’re not guaranteed to play. You’ve got to really go and make it happen.
“With Bright and all the other players, they all come in on the premise that they’re going to play, that’s why they join, but they understand they are part of the squad. We’ve got a good group, and they support each other.
“I do my best to communicate with them all the time to explain my decision-making around the team and their importance, where they can improve and what they’re good at.
“That dialogue is very important for them to feel valued and respected within a team environment.
“You have to constantly manage it and make them feel part of it because you can’t achieve anything with 11 players. For us this season, it’s only possible to do it with more than that.
“Think of someone like Marc Leonard, who last season you might say he wasn’t in the starting team, but I would class him as one of the key players of our season in terms of the core group of players.
“He’s also done that this season, been part of the core group without starting every game,” the former Leicester City assistant manager concluded.
Osayi-Samuel joined Birmingham to help them gain promotion to the English top-flight, but his eight starts this season have helped them to 9th place on the Championship table.
