Neil Warnock has hit out at Victor Camarasa for making himself unavailable through injury as the Cardiff midfielder decided to listen to his own medical staff.
Camarasa has played for just seven minutes since January 19 with the 24-year-old citing a calf injury that Cardiff insist has cleared for him to play.
However, the player’s own medical team have come to a different conclusion, and Warnock says he has never experienced an incident like this previously throughout his long career.
“I’ve never come across the situation I’ve got at the moment,” Warnock said ahead of Tuesday’s Premier League match against Everton.
“We’re having physios and medical people from abroad telling us what we can do with him when he is our player.
“He obviously listens to his physios, his medical people and Tom, Dick and Harry from abroad.
“There’s nothing we can do about that, I imagine a lot of Premier League players are like that at the minute.
“Some of them (Camarasa’s medical team) come over here and he has treatment with them as well as with our lads. It’s confusing really.”
Camarasa joined Cardiff on loan from Real Betis in August and has been a superb performer in the months since.
He started 22 successive league matches and netted three goals prior to suffering his calf injury last month, which has limited him to just a seven-minute cameo against Southampton.
And Warnock has suggested Camarasa has a weak ‘make-up’ when compared to someone such as Sol Bamba, who will play through injury if required.
“It’s very difficult for me and the medical staff when you see someone flying around and yet they aren’t fit,” Warnock continued.
“I thought he was fit 10 days ago. But they said they didn’t want him playing for 10 days. That 10 days is up now.
“We think he’s closer to fitness than what his guys think, it’s a been a really big disappointment because Camarasa is a very important player for us.
“If you saw Sol Bamba’s scan on his thigh, he wouldn’t have played for the last six weeks.
“But he tells me ‘I’m alright gaffer’ and I think that shows the make-up of certain players is stronger than others.”