Cardiff striker Yousef Salech in hospital after neck injury against Stockport

Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy said striker Yousef Salech is in hospital following his side’s 1-1 draw with Stockport in League One.

The game at the Cardiff City Stadium was overshadowed by a delay of around 12 minutes following an injury to the Bluebirds’ top scorer, who was taken off on a stretcher wearing a neck brace after a collision with County centre-back Brad Hills.

“Yousef’s in hospital, just having a scan on his neck as a precaution and we’re just waiting on the results of that,” said Barry-Murphy.

“It’s been coming, we’ve seen he hasn’t been protected by the referees. We do so much analysis on the games, if I’m the manager of an opposing team I’ll see what you can and can’t get away with against a player of his profile, and it’s just been coming for months where he’s been consistently fouled.

“There’s a lot of talk about what the threshold is this season, the level of contact can be more prolonged than in previous years.

“It’s very difficult when you have such a serious injury to someone who’s so close to all the players, so it’s difficult to compose yourself and focus on the game.

“So considering those circumstances, I was over the moon and my own focus to be honest was a little bit distracted by what happened, but the way we played and grew into the game and coped without Yousef, I was very proud of the players and really enjoyed the personality and the effort they put in.

“We’re very lucky the level of care and the attention Yousef got in that moment was brilliant and I felt relatively confident that he would be okay and once he obviously left the stadium, the messages at half-time were relatively positive.

“We managed to compose ourselves and play a great second half where we couldn’t just find a winner, I asked the players to just go for it at every moment of the game.

“Some of our player composure in the first half was not what we can do and I thought once we settled down, started to play our game, the players showed how good they can be.

“It’s a different way of playing when Yousef doesn’t play naturally because of how dangerous he is on crosses, but Calum (Paterson) helped us see the game out.

“I was pretty comfortable with creating a chance or two in the box and we did that and we just didn’t take it, but I was really happy with the players.”

County manager Dave Challinor felt it was a good result for his side away from home.

“It’s a good point for us,” he said. “I’m not going to come to an excellent side away from home, top of the league, and say I’m not happy with the point.

“I thought we were really good out of possession against a side which averages 62 per cent possession. They asked questions, we handled them.

“But we need to be miles better in possession. We have to be better at looking after the ball as we caused ourselves a few problems at moments in the game.”