After the loss at Middlesbrough, Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut updated the injury report. Kion Etete suffered a hamstring injury at the Riverside, but there is optimism that Aaron Ramsey won’t require surgery.
Ramsey, Jamilu Collins, Yakou Meite, Josh Bowler, and Callum O’Dowda were all ruled out of Tuesday night’s trip to the Riverside due to injuries, adding to Cardiff’s accumulating injury woes. For the Bluebirds, the international break cannot come soon enough in many respects. Sign up here to receive the most recent Bluebirds news in your email.
But after the game, Bulut gave an update on the health of his team, stating he hoped Collins would be available for Saturday’s critical home game against Watford. We currently have a lot of injuries, he stated.
“Collins had already from the last game, pain on his knee, it was swollen. Also his hamstring, so we didn’t want to put him out there to play. And today, Etete also felt hamstring pain. But, OK, we have to go on with what we have.
“We was in a good way. In the last four games we did well, also before that. I don’t want to put it on injuries, but we had some changing of position. Collins would have been in his position and Ng would have been in his position and maybe it would be different, I don’t know.
“I hope on Saturday [Collins] will be with us, because the knee was swollen from the last game and his hamstring problems from the few days before. We didn’t want to risk it.”
Clearly, Collins was a big miss up on Teesside. It forced Bulut to take Perry Ng out of his natural right-back position, being deployed on the left, with Ebou Adams getting the nod over Mahlon Romeo, some would say that decision backfired a little. But it’s all borne out of a problem on that left-hand side.
Collins has been forced to play almost every minute in recent weeks owing to an injury to last year’s first-choice left-back Callum O’Dowda. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be some time yet before we see the Irishman back out on the pitch of the Bluebirds.
Calum O’Dowda won’t be available for a few weeks due to an adductor tendon issue, according to Bulut. He will take a little bit longer, based on what I know. Over the past four games, Ramsey has been a major omission. The week after scoring from the penalty spot in a victory over Swansea, the Wales captain sustained a knee injury while practicing. Initially, there was speculation that Ramsey would require surgery to address the issue, which would have implied a longer absence from the field. However, in a more upbeat update, Bulut now hopes that is not the case.
“I am still waiting for the report right now,” he said of Ramsey’s injury. “I don’t know yet how long this will take. From what I know, he will not get an operation. He doesn’t need an operation. I hope he is out for as short a time as possible, but I am still waiting on when he will be available.”
We will likely get more of an update on the former Arsenal playmaker on Wednesday when Wales manager Rob Page speaks to the press. As for Bulut, he is hoping his medical team can work wonders in order to get at least one or two players, with Bowler and Collins hopefully in the mix, back out for the game against Watford this weekend.
“They do great things,” he said of his medical team, “but you can’t always bring people back as quick. I hope we can get one or two players back on Saturday.”
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