Birmingham City have re-signed midfielder Craig Gardner from West Bromwich Albion on loan, with a view to a more permanent three-year deal being completed at the end of the season.
The 30-year-old previously spent 18 months with the club he followed as a boy when he first signed for Blues from neighbours Aston Villa in January 2010.
After being part of the 2011 League Cup wining team, he left for Sunderland.
But he returned to the Midlands with then managerless Albion in May 2014.
Gardner scored six times in 85 appearances in all competitions in his two-and-a-half years at The Hawthorns.