Saturday 8 February 2014

Swansea vs Cardiff - Team News

Provided by resident fitness guru @BenDinnery


For the full match preview click here

Tomorrow nights’ SkySports cameras head over to Swansea for the South Wales Derby in the early evening kick-off as The Jacks prepare for a showdown with fierce rivals Cardiff City. 

In reality this fixture probably comes a week or so too soon for Swansea as a number of key players approach full fitness but their injury situation has improved greatly within the last month with the return of influential midfielder Nathan Dyer, Jonathan de Guzman, Roland Lamah and Dwight Tiendalli. Saturday may see the return of Dutch goal-keeper Michel Vorm who has been absent from first team duties since mid-December with Spanish team-mates Jose Canas and Michu also pushing for a recall; although the latter is only expected to take a place on the bench after almost eight weeks out. The one major concern is midfielder Jonjo Shelvey who is doubtful due to an on-going hamstring issue.

For Cardiff City manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has the luxury of almost fully fit squad with club captain Mark Hudson (hamstring) and full-back Andrew Taylor (club) the only players expected to miss out. On-loan winger Wilfried Zaha should make his full debut after an impressive cameo against Norwich while it remains to be seen if the manager will keep faith in Peter Whittingham after his early withdrawal last weekend. New signing Kenwyne Jones could spearhead the Bluebirds attack with fellow January window recruit Fabio starting at right-back. Magnus Wolff Eikrem, Mats Moller Daehli and Jo Inge Berget are all expected to be amongst the substitutes.