Omer Riza spoke to the press ahead of our Sky Bet Championship clash against Derby County on Saturday.
The City boss began with an injury update on midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who returned to training this week.
“It’s brilliant for Aaron. He’s had a few upsets in respect of his injuries, so it’s nice to see him back on the pitch training, even a little bit earlier than I thought.
“Today was his first day back with the group. He’s been doing a lot of individual stuff with the physios and medical. He’s done a few technicals with the group and today, he did the technical and did his own stuff after that.
“Everyone knows what Aaron has done in his career, how much the Club means to him and the experiences that he’s got. It’s nice for the players and the staff to have him back out there. I’m sure he’ll start to do more and more to get him back to playing.
“He’s got to complete full training first and he’ll be down to play some U21 minutes to make sure he can come through it ok. Hopefully after that, we can reintroduce him and he will be up for selection. When that will be, I don’t know.
“It’s important that we don’t rush him. Although he’s an important player and we want him back, he’s had a couple of issues in the past and we just need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The Bluebirds head into the contest after a 2-2 draw against Millwall in midweek, in which the side showed great character. New signing Yousef Salech netted his first goal for the Club in dramatic fashion, striking home a late equaliser.
Omer continued: “He’s come into the group, he’s a new signing and a fresh face. He’s a humble and hungry young man. A hungry player is a dangerous player and he wants to do well. He’s getting along with the players very well and he’s mature for his age. It was a great moment for him on Tuesday night, a good start for him and hopefully it’s the first of many.
“Callum [Robinson] has scored ten goals this year and he’s doing great. We know how tough the league is and how tough the second half of the season is going to be. We need to keep working hard, keep having options with players and that competition is healthy."
Saturday's opponents, Derby County, currently sit 21st in the Sky Bet Championship table, a point behind City.
“[The games against the teams around you] are really important," Omer added. "It’s probably where we’ve not done too well. If you look at Oxford and you look at Preston, they’ve gone up slightly, Oxford have gone up slightly as well. QPR, so we have to make sure we get that right. The boys know how important it is, we know how important it is and I’m sure come Saturday, we’ll be ready to go.
"It’s a massive game again. The games you play are gone, they’re not forgotten, but they’re gone. We said that about Millwall, Swansea’s gone and now we’ve got Millwall in front of us away from home. Whichever way you look at it, we come away from there with a point, which we have to be happy with.
"We had no other intention than to go there and win, but it just didn’t pan out that way. We had to dig deep to get something and we did. Now, we go into the Derby game and it’s going to be the same again. We need to dig deep, we need to work hard and we’re going into it to get three points."