CARDIFF CITY MANAGER Neil Harris expressed his sympathy for Greg Cunningham after confirming that the Irish defender damaged his hamstring last weekend.

Cunningham had only recently returned to action following a year on the sidelines, having ruptured his anterior cruciate knee ligament while on loan at Blackburn Rovers last season.

Thankfully this injury isn’t expected to be a long-term one, with Harris hoping that the 29-year-old will be back in contention within a matter of weeks.

It’s a blow to Cunningham nevertheless, as he had been performing well for Cardiff at left-back in the absence of the injured Joe Bennett.

The Galway native made his third consecutive Championship start on Saturday against his former club Preston North End, but was forced to limp off after 29 minutes of his side’s 1-0 win.

“I really feel for him,” Harris said ahead of last night’s game against Bournemouth. “He’s been out for so long and has been so desperate to get his Cardiff City career going, and he’s just looked so fit and reliable, finding his feet again after such a time out.”

Cunningham, who featured in the Ireland squad last year under Mick McCarthy, has four senior caps for his country, the most recent of which came in a February 2013 friendly against Poland.

Neil Warnock signed him from Preston for a reported fee of £4 million as Cardiff City were preparing to return to the Premier League in the summer of 2018.

However, he was restricted to just seven top-flight appearances for the Welsh club, who ended the season with relegation back to the Championship. Cunningham was then sent for a loan spell at Blackburn which was cut short by his ACL injury.