BIRMINGHAM City boss Gary Rowett is keen to keep Clarets striker Lukas Jutkiewicz at St Andrew’s once his loan spell ends in January.

The 27-year-old has four goals in his last six games for the Blues after suffering a goalless two years at Turf Moor.

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Birmingham have an option to sign the former Everton striker permanently in January and Rowett admitted it was an avenue he was interested in exploring.

“We have got an option that we could at least have the opportunity to speak to Burnley,” he said.

“I am sure Burnley have got other irons in the fire in those positions being in the Premier League.

“There is a long way to go before then. Sometimes what we have been guilty of doing here is someone will have four or five strong games then all of a sudden there is clamour.

“I think we can maybe be a bit more patient.

“He has done great, I would love to keep him for longer, maybe an option in January would have been something we couldn’t have even took up in previous years, it would be something we would put in there just to get the deal done.

“He’s done great, if he continues the form he has shown so far then of course we would want to keep him longer. But that’s down to a lot of things, not least his club.”

Sean Dyche is pleased to see Jutkiewicz firing while out on loan.

“It’s good to see all of our players doing well,” he said. “I don’t let them out on loan flippantly, if we deem its correct for them, it’s just the way we work.

“Keep banging them in, it’s important and sends out a good message about what we do here.”

“If our players go out on loan, they’re virtually always ready to go, physically and mentally.