Defender Carl Regan today launched his Shrewsbury Town comeback in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Birmingham City.

Summer signing Regan has been out of action since mid-August due to a knee ligament injury.

But the right-back was inked in to feature in the squad game against Championship side Birmingham on the training pitch next to Shrewsbury’s Greenhous Meadow earlier today.

“Carl has been out for quite some time,” said Town boss Graham Turner.

“He has been back in training but needs to play games so this will be a useful exercise.”

Town’s line-up also included goalkeeper Chris Neal, as well as centre-back and club captain Ian Sharps, midfielder Matt Richards and striker Terry Gornell.

That quartet were all brought into the starting line-up for Saturday’s 3-2 last-gasp victory over Barnet in League Two – but Turner is eager to give them more game time.

“They have all missed a fair amount of football in recent weeks and months so they will get an hour or so,” said Turner this morning.

“There is nothing like match practice to help you get your timing right and it looked set to be a decent game because when you play against quality opposition, they usually play the ball around.

“We have already had similar games this season over at Coventry and Wolves,” he added.

“And it’s good to have the chance to have a look at their players as well, as well as giving our own players some game time.”

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury striker James Collins – who has five goals so far this season – is hoping to be involved with the Republic of Ireland under-21s squad in Liechtenstein tonight.

The former Villa man was an unused substitute as the Irish opened their UEFA Championship qualifying campaign with a 2-1 win over Hungary on September 1.

But he did make an appearance off the bench in the Republic’s 1-0 defeat away to group leaders Turkey five days later.

By CHRIS HUDSON