Cardiff players scared to fly after Sala vanished

Cardiff City player warm up before a Premier League match [Courtesy]

Cardiff City defender Sol Bamba revealed some of his team-mates became fearful of flying after new signing Emiliano Sala went missing while on board a plane.

The whereabouts of club-record recruit Sala remains unknown following the disappearance of a Piper Malibu aircraft en route to Cardiff from Nantes on January 21.

Sala was travelling to the Welsh capital having bid farewell to his Nantes team-mates before the plane vanished without a trace, with Guernsey Police ending the search on Thursday.

The Argentine striker was honoured before Arsenal’s 2-1 Premier League win over Cardiff on Tuesday following the distribution of daffodils with the match programme at the Emirates Stadium.

Emiliano Sala [Courtesy]

Reflecting on the heartbreaking situation, Bamba told BBC Sport Wales: “It is very difficult to even describe how the players are feeling.

“It is a very unusual situation, a big tragedy. We have all been affected by it, the lads, the city, the whole club.

“We have had some help. We travel by plane and some of the lads have been thinking ‘I don’t want to go on it anymore.’ It was that deep, the gaffer has been good and the club have been good in terms of bringing someone in to talk to if we need to.

“And I think some of the lads do, they need to get it out. So I think it was good thinking from the club and the gaffer and hopefully in the weeks to come we are going to feel better.”