Cardiff manager: Sala tragedy is most difficult week in career

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Cardiff manager Neil Warnock says he has gone through the worst week of his 40-year career as he speaks for the first time following the disappearance of a plane carrying new signing Emiliano Sala.

“You think 24 hours a day about whether to carry on,” Warnock said, “It's impossible to sleep. I've been in football management for 40 years and it's been by far the most difficult week in my career, by an absolute mile.”

He went on to say, “It's been a traumatic week and even now I can't get my head around the situation. It's probably hit me harder than anyone else as I've met the lad and talked to him for the last six to eight weeks.”

Warnock, 70, said he had spoken regularly to Sala before the Argentine signed for the Welsh side on January 19 in the club's record 15 million pounds (or about 20 million U.S. dollars) deal just two days before the aircraft taking him from Nantes to Cardiff came down over the Channel Islands.

A tribute to Cardiff City striker Emiliano Sala is shown on the big screen during the FA Cup fourth round match at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea, January 26, 2019. /VCG Photo

Cardiff will play for the first time since Sala's disappearance when they visit Arsenal on Tuesday.

Warnock revealed that the League Managers' Association had offered him support and that several Cardiff players had spoken to psychologists over the past week.

And he accepted it will be hard to lift his players in the fight for Premier League survival in the aftermath of such tragic circumstances.

Warnock also confirmed that Cardiff's players would not wear black arm bands on Tuesday, in accordance with the family's wishes, but yellow daffodils would be laid on the Emirates pitch.

Private search underway

Tributes for Emiliano Sala left outside Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Britain, January 26, 2019. /VCG Photo

The official search for the player and pilot David Ibbotson was called off last Thursday, but fundraisers have helped pay Sala's family continue a private search.

The marine scientist David Mearns, who is leading the private search for Sala's plane by using underwater technology to scan the seabed, outlined the difficulties his team face.

“This is a relatively small search area... but there are complications in terms of it being a small plane, the bottom (of the sea) is very hard, there is lots of other wreckage out there, and we have the weather,” Mearns told reporters.

“We are working in the worst time. If this was the summer time our confidence level would be much higher, almost to the point of a guarantee,” said Mearns.

(with inputs from AFP and Reuters)