Nigel Pearson admitted he may be forced to switch to a back four for Saturday's trip to Birmingham after Kal Naismith hobbled off with a calf injury in the draw with Coventry.
The centre-back was forced off five minutes before half-time after appearing to pull up when overstretching in a challenge. Without a recognised central defender on the bench, midfielder Andy King dropped into the heart of the back three and performed admirably in an unfamiliar position.
Coventry arguably had the better of the chances in a tight game with Dan Bentley denying striker Viktor Gyokeres on the hour mark after the striker was played through on goal. The City stopper also denied Kasey Palmer at the beginning of the second half as the Robins ended their three-game losing streak.
The injury to Naismith leaves City desperately short of numbers at the back but the manager conceded he won't know the severity of the issue until Wednesday or Thursday. Speaking after the draw, Pearson said: "I won’t know for 24-48 hours. (It's his) calf.
"Andy King is very capable of playing there and he’s a good organiser too, a calm head which we need a good communicator. Our other options on the bench were George Tanner and Cam Pring who are both young players, neither of them are what I would call an organiser, so it was pretty obvious choice to put Kingy back there."
When asked whether he would have any qualms starting King in defence against Birmingham, he added: "Well, we’ll have to see what happens or I’ll change to a back four. We don’t have a lot of options, but we’ll make do that’s what it is.”
Pearson also appeared to suggest Timm Klose won't be back in time to face Birmingham. The Swiss veteran has recently been back with his family for personal reasons while also struggling with a knee issue.
He said: "Is Timm Klose, closer? I’ve already cracked that gag down there. No idea.
"We’ll see, we’ll see. He’s got a bit of grumbly knee and we’ll have to see how he is. But he’s back and he’s in good form in terms of he is himself and he’s training and around the boys which is good.
"We’ll make sure he’s okay, but if you remember when he made his debut at Preston away, he hadn’t played in a long time, he did okay then. We’ll see how the players shape up over the next couple of days and as always, we’ll pick the side that we think is best suited to take on our next opponents which is Birmingham away."
It was by far a classic under the lights with Antoine Semenyo having the best opportunity in the first half when his strike was saved by the legs of keeper Ben Wilson. Tommy Conway also glanced a header into the keeper's hands while Nahki Wells saw an overhead kick tipped over the crossbar.
Pearson believes his side looked the most likely of grabbing the winner but admitted he won't lose sleep following a run of one point in four matches.
He added: "I think what we needed tonight was to make sure we put in a solid performance, and I think it was a very honest performance.
"I think one point from six games is disappointing for us, but you get weeks like that, I don’t lose sleep over that. I know what we have, and I know what we’re capable of achieving. But when you lose key players like Matty James, Kal Naismith they’re big losses.
"The conclusion is they defended well, we attacked with a lot of drive. 40 crosses I think it was, Jay Dasilva great delivery, but they defended very well. I think Tommy (Conway) got our first contact on target from a cross with his first touch.
"You know we’ve pushed them hard and on another day, we win the game but it’s one of those things another tough Championship game. It’s the first time we haven’t scored so to get something out of a tight game if you’re not scoring you need to keep a clean sheet and that was important for us tonight because we certainly deserved something out of the game and territorial advantage in terms of in attacking areas.
"I think we would expect to convert some of the opportunities we created in terms of not too many clear-cut chances, but some really good attacking situations and we’ve done that all season so no great criticism of our creative side of it sometimes you just have to accept that’s what it is. But credit to them they defended very well."
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