Liam Manning has admitted Bristol City’s clash with Cardiff City will likely come too early for Cam Pring to return from injury, with the tight turnaround between games limiting the defender’s training time.
The Robins travel to South Wales on Saturday lunchtime for the second Severnside derby of the season as they look to climb into the top six and register back-to-back wins following Wednesday night’s win over Stoke City.
Cardiff currently sit 20th in the Championship table, having only won seven of their opening 31 league games this term and come into this weekend’s clash off of the back of a 2-1 defeat against Portsmouth on Tuesday evening.
Pring hasn’t featured for the Reds since New Year’s Day when he was forced off in the first half of their 2-2 draw with Plymouth Argyle with a hamstring injury. Although Brian Tinnion told BBC Radio Bristol the left-back was set to return to first-team training this week, Manning insisted that while he was close, he was unlikely to feature in South Wales.
“Pringy’s close and Josh Campbell-Slowey’s not far behind,” Manning said after the Reds’ win over Stoke. “It’s tight, very tight. That’s the challenge, you’re always weighing it up. You want to push people to get them back as quickly as possible, but at the same time, you don’t want to break them again.
“It’s one of those. We’ll assess where everybody is at tonight and then we’re in working tomorrow. I think it’s probably a little bit too early for him.”
Saturday afternoon will be Manning’s first trip to the Cardiff City Stadium as Reds boss and for the first time in his time in charge of the Robins, he will be the away side’s manager in a Severnside derby. Since taking over from Nigel Pearson, the 39-year-old is yet to beat the Bluebirds having lost at Ashton Gate last season and drawn 1-1 in BS3 this term, thanks to Luke McNally’s first goal in City colours.
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A win over Omar Riza’s side this Saturday would see the Robins climb into the top six for the first time in 2025, even if only for a matter of hours. While Manning is keen to secure the bragging rights for the travelling support, he doesn’t want his side to just “turn it on” against their Severnside rivals.
“Of course, you want to understand what it means to the fans and people associated with the club,” Manning explained. “We want to do everything we can to give them bragging rights. It’s making sure we understand and appreciate the importance of the game, but at the same point, you don’t just turn it on.
“Show the same level of fight, aggression, and desire that you do in every single game. Of course, we’ll be doing everything we can to win on Saturday.
“I think Omar has done a good job to be fair. He obviously inherited a difficult situation and I’m sure like everybody in the Championship they’ve won a few and lost a few but hey, I don’t tend to follow other teams too much. Mine was get tonight done, focus on tonight and then I’ll be in tomorrow getting ready to plan for Saturday.”