Coxe set to get City call as the Bluebirds wait on injured duo
CARDIFF City could be without key duo Callum Paterson and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing for today’s trip to Blackburn, with both players set to be assessed as late as possible.
Both Paterson and Mendez-Laing compounded the miserable loss to Reading by emerging from the game with injury problems.
The Scot took a bang to his knee against the Royals and it flared up in the subsequent days, while MendezLaing was visibly struggling with his hamstring issue, which he picked up against Wigan on the opening day, in the latter stages of the match.
“They’re improving,” Warnock said of the players ahead of the trip to Ewwod Park.
“But that’s all you can say about them. Whether it’s too early for this weekend or not I’m not sure.
“Paterson has got more chance. The problem is, we want to be careful because it’s the knee he had an operation on. But it wasn’t related to that operation, the operation was good. He just got such a whack when he collided with that guy, fluid came on his knee.
“We didn’t want to take any gambles on it, so we’re leaving it a little bit.”
The injury to Paterson forced Warnock’s hand against Huddersfield on Wednesday night and he afforded Lee Tomlin his first appearance of the season.
Tomlin was bright in a muchimproved display by the Bluebirds and received a standing ovation from the Cardiff City faithful when he made way for Junior Hoilett late in the second half.
Following the match, however, the manager urged caution and insisted the player’s workload would have to be managed delicately. On Friday, the player appeared in good spirits at the club’s training base, but Warnock revealed he had been feeling the effects of Wednesday night’s exertion.
“He’ll be a bit stiff,” Warnock said of Tomlin, “as he was yesterday, so we will have to see how he is really. It’s really down to him.”
Meanwhile, Warnock confirmed that Marlon Pack is facing a couple of months on the sideline after his hamstring injury was deemed to be a grade three tear, the worst prognosis possible.
“He’s not going to go under the knife,” Warnock said of Pack. “But it’s what they call a grade three I think, which is the worst. So probably a couple of months.”
It means, then, that opportunities may crop up elsewhere. While he confirmed there had been no contact with Joe Ledley,Warnock refused to rule out the prospect of brining in other unattached players.
What is more likely, however, is that we see a number of academy stars given their chance to impress in the coming weeks.
Ciaron Brown was included in the match-day squad for Huddersfield this week, and will be again for the Rovers match, while Cameron Coxe is also set to be in the travelling party.
“He’ll be in the squad tomorrow, we are a bit short at the minute,” Warnock said of Brown.
“We can’t look ahead to the cup game either, but it’s very close to bringing two or three of them in to travel.
“We’ve got a couple of lads who are doubtful, one we are going to take with us today and make a decision tomorrow. So we’ll have to take young Coxey with us, we are a bit threadbare at the minute.”