http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/f...-neil-12297527

Neil Warnock has revealed how he ended up wishing he'd gone for a massage on Thursday afternoon after a sickness bug wreaked havoc with his preparations for Ipswich Town.

Cardiff City face a pivotal tie with Mick McCarthy's team, who sit just five points ahead of the Bluebirds in the table.

However, a bug saw four players miss a crucial training session as Warnock prepared to make some changes to the team's shape. The Cardiff boss has long been lining up this crucial run of games in December as an opportunity to mix things up, but admits he is now playing a waiting game ahead of the trip to Portman Road.

He is hopeful, however, that his charges will beat the bug in time for kick-off.

Warnock said: "We’ve had one or two this week which we’re monitoring. We’ve had another sickness and diarrhoea bug that’s put four out of training this week. It’s like emergency ward ten this morning! Unless we get someone going down today we should be OK.

"I’d planned completely, everything I was going to do against Ipswich only to be told, first of all we were going to work on an area but they said you can’t because he’s missing and he’s missing.

"Then we were going to work on another area but they said he’s missing and he’s missing! In the end I might as well have gone for a sauna and a massage! It was a waste of time but you’ve just got to accept it."

Rickie Lambert remains a doubt, too, after missing the Brighton draw.

Warnock said: "Rickie Lambert is training, we’ll know more today, he hasn’t done anything other than straight forward running so we need to test that more, especially with three games in a week. "