Ledley off to hospital

It had to happen eventually with midfielder Joe Ledley carrying a hip injury the official website has announced he will be going into hospital at the end of the month to final fix the problem.

Ledley needs two operations the first with be at the end of the month and 10/14 days later he will have the second, he will be out for the rest of the season. Ledley will be out of contract in the summer, although City boss Dave Jones is keen for him to sign a new contract. However, the player and his agent have left contract on the table unsigned.

Manager Dave Jones said: "A date is set for Joe's operation. It will probably be before the end of January that we'll have to say to him: 'Joe, it's best to get in and get it done.'
"He's got to have both hips done. He'll have one done, and then there'll be a 10 to 14-day break before the other one is done.
"Warren Feeney had this problem for two-and-a-half seasons and Roger Johnson battled through a season with it, but they needed only one hip done.
"Joe has to get both done. Joe is 22 and when you look at his age and the number of games he's played, that's a lot of games, so he's best to get sorted. Then he gets back as quickly as possible."

If don’t sign he will be free to sign for another club free but Cardiff will be looking for compensation as he is under 23, a tribunal will be needed to decide how much the Bluebirds receive for his development.

The clubs hope of a large payout as been greatly improved after the compensation Chelsea had to pay for Daniel Sturridge to Manchester City, £3.5million now with a possible another £3million based on appearances and senior international caps for England. All that based on only 12 first team starts and 20 odd off the subs bench. Ledley on the other hand has played almost 250 games with around 14 of them from the bench and as 32 full caps for Wales.

Cardiff City boss Dave Jones said about the Sturridge deal, "We are still hoping Joe will sign a new contract. If he doesn't we will look at the compensation, it's as simple as that.
"What's happened with Sturridge at Chelsea bodes well for us because he has not played anywhere near the amount of games Joe has played and he's not a full international.
"So if I was the chairman I would be pretty happy with what they have delivered there because Joe is on a different playing field from Sturridge even though he's at Chelsea.”