Morrison doubtful for Wednesday trip, but Bagan out for the season

CARDIFF City captain Sean Morrison remains a doubt for tomorrow’s clash with Sheffield Wednesday after sustaining a calf strain, manager Mick McCarthy has said.

Morrison was absent for the Bluebirds’ 1-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest on Friday, with Aden Flint being named captain in his stead.

Morrison sustained a number of knocks against Swansea City before the international break, with one particularly grim picture showing nasty damage to his Achilles.

However, McCarthy said the problem was a calf strain, which is likely to keep him sidelined for the trip to Hillsborough.

The manager admitted that not having his captain available is a big miss, especially given the Bluebirds will desperately want to get their play-off push back on track.

“It’s his calf, he has strained his calf,” McCarthy said of Morrison after the Forest defeat.

“He is certainly a doubt for Monday. We will have to see about next Saturday.

“He is a... well, I was going to say he is a big loss for us, but I have to compliment Ciaron Brown for his performance and Tom Sang, Joe Ralls at left wing-back, the lads who have come in have all been great.

“But he is a loss to us, there is no doubt. Because he was excellent for us while he was playing and certainly at Swansea, he had a great game.”

And in another blow, McCarthy confirmed that young left-back Joel Bagan has undergone surgery on his shoulder after dislocating it against Huddersfield Town last month.

It was touch and go as to whether they were going to simply rehab the shoulder and get him back in the fold before the end of the season or whether he should go under the knife to ensure more stability.

But McCarthy said that, given Bagan is just 19, they took the belt and braces option for the sake of the youngster’s longer-term health.

“He has had an operation and is in recovery at the minute,” the manager said.

“I saw him yesterday doing his exercises and he was at the game today.

“He was never going to be involved (this season) if he had the operation.

“The temptation was to rehab him and get him back. But once you’ve done it once you’re more than likely to do it again and that would be completely unfair for him, a 19-year-old kid to do that.

“He needs to be rehabbed properly, so when he comes back he has got no fears of doing it again.”

It is a crushing blow for the young left-back, given he had just been handed a clean run at the position following Joe Bennett’s ACL tear.

However, he will no doubt be champing at the bit to make that leftback slot his own come the start of next season.