Alex McLeish believes that he needs a minimum squad size of 23 going into next season's Championship campaign.

Having parted company with the likes of Mikael Forssell, Mauro Zarate, Rafael Schmitz and Richard Kingson, McLeish currently has 20 senior players at his disposal.

"Twenty three is probably a decent squad size if you look at how successful managers worked in the Championship last year in terms of their numbers," said the Blues boss.

"At the moment we've got 20 senior players, so we want to add two or three more to take it up to 23.

"I realise it's almost impossible to get 23 world class players at any club unless you're a Manchester United or Arsenal.

"But we'd like to have a good nucleus, encourage some of the young players coming through and also look at the possibility of loans.

"I'd like to think we'll go forward with the ones that will commit to us, but there may be the odd sacrifice here and there.

"We may have to sacrifice a good player to move it forward because it might mean two players coming in to enhance the squad."

Following the club's relegation to the Championship last season, Blues will be forced to play at least nine extra games next term - eight league and a first round League Cup tie.

As well as having sufficient playing staff to cope with these extra demands, McLeish has stressed the importance of having a supremely fit squad.

"There are loads of extra games so we need to make sure the players are extremely fit," he added.

"We will be proactive in terms of preventative work and the conditioning side of things that they can go and endure a long hard season.

"Of course there will probably be more need for rotation and hence again the fortune of being able to use this loan system.

"It was a godsend for the teams that came up - Stoke and West Brom.

"Tony Pullis (at Stoke) was a master at it so I guess I've got to learn pretty quickly."