Cardiff City vs Mansfield Town. The FA Cup Third Round.
Cardiff City StadiumAttendance6,378.
Friday 5 January 2018 12:04, UK
Cardiff are short on numbers for their FA Cup third-round home tie with Mansfield on Saturday.
Lee Peltier has been ruled out for a month after being booked in for surgery and Matthew Connolly - who damaged a muscle in the New Year's Day defeat at QPR - will be out for a similar length of time.
Cardiff are already without Aron Gunnarsson (ankle), Sean Morrison (groin), Danny Ward (knee) and Kadeem Harris (groin), and Bluebirds boss Neil Warnock says his squad has also had to cope with a training ground flu bug this week. But there is some good news with Wales defender Jazz Richards fully recovered from an ankle problem which has prevented him playing since September.
Danny Rose could return to the Mansfield squad after missing the win over Carlisle on Monday with a hip injury. Captain Zander Diamond also missed that match after he was struck in the face with the ball against Wycombe on December 30 and remains absent.
Midfielder Joel Byrom will not be fit in time, but he is expected to return to training next week following his groin injury. Defender David Mirfin is still being assessed after knee surgery and it remains to be seen whether he will be involved.
This will be first time these two sides have met in the FA Cup - the last meeting in the league was in March 2003, with Cardiff winning 1-0 via a Rob Earnshaw winner.
The Bluebirds have won seven of their last nine games against Mansfield (L2), winning each of their four home games in this run.
Cardiff have been knocked out of the FA Cup in eight of their last 11 ties, including each of the last three.
The Stags are in the third round for the first time since 2013 whilst in the non-league, however they haven't reached the fourth round since 2008.
