Tonight's Cardiff City news as star reveals heart-breaking news and player undergoes scan today
The latest Bluebirds news from Cardiff City Stadium
by Glen Williams · Wales OnlineHere are your Cardiff City headlines for Tuesday, January 2.
Star reveals heart-breaking news
Dimitrios Goutas has shared a heart-breaking post after it was revealed his grandmother was seriously ill in hospital.
Goutas scored the opening goal for Cardiff in their 2-1 win over QPR on New Year's Day, but the Greek was visibly upset during his celebration. Erol Bulut later revealed it was because Goutas' grandmother was ill in hospital and the prognosis was not good.
And today, Goutas, who has garnered even more love and praise from Cardiff City fans in the knowledge he played at Loftus Road during incredibly difficult circumstances, shared an emotional social media post which appeared to confirm the worst.
He said on Instagram: "Thanks for all the memories we had together! I know you scored that goal. Till we meet again. Love you."
Goutas is expected to go to Greece to visit his family ahead of the FA Cup weekend fixture against Sheffield Wednesday. Get the latest Cardiff City news sent straight to your inbox for free with our daily newsletter.
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Grant undergoes scan
One of Cardiff's best players this season, Karlan Grant, has undergone a scan on his hamstring injury today.
The Bluebirds winger, who has impressed on loan from West Brom, his parent club who did not insert a recall clause into his contract and therefore will not be recalled to The Hawthorns this month, came off in the 40th minute of City's 2-0 defeat by Leicester on December 29.
It was a real blow for Bulut, who at the time feared there might be a "rupture" in the player's hamstring. It came just as he was hitting some real form, too, scoring two in two games before his injury.
After QPR, Bulut said of Grant: "Tomorrow we will have the scan, because the hospitals have been closed, so we couldn't get a scan. So it will be tomorrow. I will know more what he has.
"I hope it is not something serious because, OK, it is January, we will try to make some transfers, but we need these players to come back quickly."
Alnwick: We can be right up there
Goalkeeper Jak Alnwick believes City can be play-off contenders this year after showing grit and spirit to come out on top against QPR on New Year's Day.
Dimitrios Goutas and Perry Ng headers sealed the win, but the points would not have been secured if Alnwick had not made a wonderful save from Sinclair Armstrong in the 90th minute to preserve the Bluebirds' slender lead.
It leaves Cardiff in ninth place and three points off the top six with 20 league games left in the season. Alnwick said: "I think we can kick on regardless of signings. I think with the squad that we've got, we have shown that we can go away to the biggest teams in the league.
"We went to Leeds earlier this season and got a draw. We went to Leicester and got beat in the last minute but we've shown we can compete. Sometimes a couple of new faces are always nice, but obviously that's down to the club, not to me, but we are in a good place.
"And as you can see, you put a little run together and you can be right up there so it's down to us to keep on going. We had put some good foundations in last year. We said this year we really want to kick on. It's the halfway point of the season.
"We knew it was going to be tough [against QPR], but winning games like that sometimes goes a long way - rather than passing teams off the park and winning three or four nil - it was scrappy, but we got there."
QPR absentees explained
Mahlon Romeo, Andy Rinomhota and Romaine Sawyers were all absent from Cardiff's squad at QPR due to illness, according to manager Bulut.
The Bluebirds included academy graduates Joel Colwill and Kieron Evans on the bench at Loftus Road, with the experienced trio nowhere to be seen.
Some City supporters suspected that it might have something to do with transfers, however the Bluebirds boss insisted it was only illness. Karlan Grant was, of course, injured, while Bulut said protocols following a head injury in training again prevented Alex Runarsson from being involved.