By Gareth James
Mick McCarthy has expressed his fears over defender Joe Bennett’s injury that overshadowed a stunning 4-0 victory over Derby County.
The left-back looks set to miss the rest of City’s season after he let out an agonising shriek as fell to the ground in a heap just past the half-hour mark at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Bennett was taken away on a stretcher after six minutes of treatment as a Leandro Bacuna double and goals from Kieffer Moore and Will Vaulks swept McCarthy’s men back into the top six.
“He’s not good,” said McCarthy after his seventh win in 10 unbeaten games as City boss. “I’m not a doctor or a surgeon but he’ll be assessed tomorrow.
“He’s not in good shape anyway. It’s his knee. Exceptionally tough for him, you could tell it wasn’t right. There will be suspicions of being ligaments or ACL all that.
“Until he has a scan and the doctors have decided what it is, I’m not going to try and attempt to say what it is. Everybody will have a guess.
“You could tell, he didn’t move. When someone goes down and doesn’t move you know he’s hurt and it’s a real sore one.”
Bennett had a hand in City’s opener on 22 minutes, sliding in Bacuna who bagged his first goal since November 2019.
Moore forced a fingertip save from Kelle Roos but the £2m bargain buy netted his 16th goal of the season just after the interval with a header.
Sheyi Ojo set up Bacuna’s second eight minutes later which the Curacao international curled home left-footed into the corner of the net.
And Vaulks capped a superb win with a 30-yard effort that inflicted the worst defeat on ex-England international Rooney’s short managerial career.
If Bennett is ruled out of the remaining 13 games, with City harbouring serious promotion hopes, than academy product Joel Bagan looks set for an extended run.
“I’ve got absolutely zero worries about Joel Bagan,” added McCarthy.
“He’s very unfortunate that he’s got such a good player and experienced player in front of him. Joe’s vastly experienced and a good player.
“But Joel has got big things ahead of him and is terrific.”
City have now won seven of their last eight games – and taken 24 points out of 30 under McCarthy – though there is little chance to recover with a trip to Huddersfield Town on Friday night.
McCarthy added: “I don’t know if that’s the best we’ve played, it is another good performance, we were very organised and disciplined and didn’t allow Derby to play through us.
“We worked exceptionally hard and that gives you the foundation to create chances and I was disappointed we weren’t more than 1-0 up at half-time.
“It was great to get the second goal when we did and we thoroughly deserved the victory.
“We’ll be back in tomorrow and recovering. It’s easier to recover, easier to want to play. everybody wants to play, things are good. Long may that continue, we’ve won nowt yet, that’s for sure.”
