Nigel Pearson reveals double Bristol City injury extent ahead of Cardiff City grudge match

Nigel Pearson says both Haydon Roberts and Andy King were substituted off in their 1-0 defeat to Ipswich Town due to injury, and that the pair could miss Saturday’s Severnside derby against Cardiff City.

Roberts was initially brought on for King with 25 minutes to play, before the full back was replaced himself by debutant Joseph James with the clock ticking down.

Roberts was also subbed off early in the Robins’ 1-0 victory over Coventry City on Saturday, but Pearson insisted that the late change against the Tractor Boys was made solely due to injury.

“I just took him off because he was limping,” he said. “And when we’re pressing late in the game I want players who can run flat out. Hopefully he’ll be okay for the weekend because we’ll need him. It’s what the team needs and we need to keep that intensity up, that’s how it is.”

In terms of King, Pearson revealed that the veteran tweaked his hamstring. The ex-Leicester City man has had little gametime this season, but due to the Robins’ injury troubles in defence, the 34-year-old was forced to play back to back highly intense matches at centre back, which look to have taken their toll on the midfielder.

Pearson explained: “He felt his hamstring, so again, I think we’ve got enough problems with availability as it is, but if we can perform like that with a pretty narrow squad, we’ll be okay. I think the players shouldn’t be too downhearted tonight because the performance was really good and on another day we get something out of the game.”

If Roberts and King are forced to miss the clash against the Bluebirds, City will have to improvise even more in terms of their defensive set up.

Assuming that the duo do miss out, that leaves the Robins with just three fit senior out and out defenders; Rob Dickie, Cam Pring and Taylor Gardner-Hickman.

Mark Sykes would likely fill in again at right back, but the manager may be forced to turn to some young blood to cover elsewhere across the backline.

“There’s no point in moaning too much about it, that’s our situation,” Pearson added. “Hopefully we willl get players back over the next week and a half or two weeks, which will ease that situation.

“We’ve just got to manage it now in the short term in terms of the players who played tonight to make sure that they recover and then we’ll have a headcount either tomorrow or the day after.”