Cardiff boss Neil Warnock has expressed his frustration at Victor Camarasa making himself unavailable through injury and criticised the Spanish playmaker for listening to his own personal medical staff.
Camarasa has only played seven minutes of football since January 19 with the 24-year-old midfielder citing a calf injury that Cardiff insist has cleared for him to play.
But in what some might consider another example of player-power after Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga’s refusal to be substituted in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, Warnock took aim at Camarasa for listening to “Tom, Dick and Harry from abroad”.
“I’ve never come across the situation I’ve got at the moment,” Warnock said ahead of the Premier League home game against Everton on Tuesday.
“We’re having physios and medical people from abroad telling us what we can do with him when he is our player.
“He obviously listens to his physios, his medical people and Tom, Dick and Harry from abroad.
“There’s nothing we can do about that, I imagine a lot of Premier League players are like that at the minute.
“Some of them (Camarasa’s medical team) come over here and he has treatment with them as well as with our lads. It’s confusing really.”
Camarasa has arguably been Cardiff’s best player since signing a season-long loan deal from Real Betis in August.
He missed the opening game of the season at Bournemouth just a few days after signing for the Bluebirds.
Camarasa started the next 22 league matches, scoring three goals, but his game-time since has been limited to a seven-minute cameo as a substitute in the 2-1 victory at Southampton on February 9.
“It’s very difficult for me and the medical staff when you see someone flying around and yet they aren’t fit,” Warnock said.
“I thought he was fit 10 days ago. But they said they didn’t want him playing for 10 days. That 10 days is up now.
“We think he’s closer to fitness than what his guys think, it’s a been a really big disappointment because Camarasa is a very important player for us.
“If you saw Sol Bamba’s scan on his thigh, he wouldn’t have played for the last six weeks.
“But he tells me ‘I’m alright gaffer’ and I think that shows the make-up of certain players is stronger than others.”
Cardiff remain one point above the relegation zone following 18th-placed Southampton’s 2-0 defeat at Arsenal on Sunday.
The Bluebirds seek to bounce back from their 5-1 Watford mauling on Friday against Everton, who have not played for over two weeks.
“They’ve had a long time without a game so I would imagine they’ll be very organised,” Warnock said.
“The manager (Marco Silva) works very hard on the training ground with the structure and, with the players they’ve got, it will be difficult.
“We saw them against Watford, who beat us five, and they weren’t far behind and could have won on the day. So I class these teams in the same sort of bracket.”
