Garry O'Connor goes on 'sensational' emergency loan to Barnsley

The Scottish forward penned a new six-month deal in the summer in a bid to prove his fitness following an injury-hit season last term. The former Hibs forward has figured twice so far this campaign for Alex McLeish's side.

Confirming the news on their website, Barnsley described the swoop as "sensational" and revealed an option to extend the loan beyond a month.

Meanwhile, McLeish has admitted he is close to finally signing a new contract with Birmingham, having started talks over a new deal before the end of last season after steering City to promotion and then establishing them in the Barclays Premier League.

But it is only now the former Scotland manager appears ready to put pen to paper on a new deal.

McLeish, whose side entertain Liverpool tomorrow, said: "Talks have progressed and I'm just inches away from signing a new contract. The figures and everything are fine. We've just got to iron out the rough edges. We're pretty close and there are just a couple of technicalities - a release clause and that kind of thing - but it's not excessive from either camp and it's absolutely standard.

"Contracts are not something I like talking about in public, but it will be nice to get it resolved."

McLeish admits the talks appear to have taken longer than expected to be concluded.

He said: "I think it was just the timing of the announcement that we were going to have talks in the middle of a hectic season. We've kind of let things peter out until the end of the season and then we couldn't pin a date down because either my representatives were busy or (chairman) Peter Pannu's side was busy.

"That kind of wasted a lot of time, but, to be honest, we've only really sat down four or five times to talk about it."

McLeish has not ruled out recent signing Aleksandr Hleb for the game against the Reds despite him suffering a leg injury when on duty for Belarus against Romania in midweek, and has backed him to be big influence. "I saw him play for Belarus against Scotland a couple of times. They actually beat us once at Hampden Park and, on that day, he was very influential," he said.