Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut has urged his side to “look forward” and not dwell on their derby defeat to Swansea last time out ahead of his side’s fixture with Sunderland tomorrow.

Before the international break, Bulut’s side fell to a 2-0 defeat at the Swansea.com Stadium to goals by Jamal Lowe and Wales international Liam Cullen.

He also warned that his returning internationals were “tired” as some of them only returned to the squad on Wednesday or Thursday, having played in midweek.

One of those players is vice-captain Aaron Ramsey, who despite being called up by Wales, did not play a minute in either the play-off semi-final against Finland or Tuesday night’s penalty defeat to Poland.

Bulut, though, confirmed that Ramsey is not fit enough to start but could play “for 30 or 45 minutes.”

He expressed surprise that Ramsey did not even get on the pitch for penalties.

“I was expecting that he would play the last game against Poland, for at least 15 minutes, or maybe even just for penalties,” said Bulut.

He touched on the fact that his players returning from the international break – the likes of Manolis Siopis, Rubin Colwill and Ramsey would need a bit of “motivation” after seeing their sides fail to reach EURO 2024 through the play-offs.

“I met with Aaron directly after the game,” he said.

“It’s normal [for morale to be low] when you lose a game and especially a game to be at EURO 2024. I know from Aaron [Ramsey] especially that he wanted to be there because maybe this is his last EURO.”

Bulut confirmed that left-back Jamilu Collins is out with a minor hamstring injury along with Jak Alnwick and Kion Etete.

There was some optimism on the injury front, with Callum O’Dowda now ready to start after appearing as a substitute for the last two games scoring a memorable winner against Ipswich.

Bulut remained coy on his future, saying he had had no contract with the club despite his contract expiring in the summer.

He has steered Cardiff to the upper half of the table, after they finished 21^st last season under Sabri Lamouchi.

Lamouchi’s assistant, Sol Bamba, said yesterday that the club had “found a good manager” in Bulut.

“Everyone says it and I can see from the way the team is playing that the players love him,” Bamba said.

“If I could give advice to Cardiff, it would be to tie him down, definitely.

“I think eventually they will and it would be the right thing to do because if you want to build anything, you have got to have consistency and a vision.

“I think if you give a manager one year, it’s always hard to have a vision. So hopefully he can sign a new deal and move forward.”

Another potential departure from Cardiff?

Forward Karlan Grant, is another who to leave Cardiff in the summer, also spoke about his future after a positive loan season at the Cardiff City Stadium.

“I have still got years left on my contract at West Brom so it’s a conversation for the two clubs to have,” said Grant.

“I’ll go back and speak to my representative and we’ll see what the best option is for me.”

Cardiff fans will no doubt want him to stay after impressing this season, mostly from the left of the forward line.

The former Huddersfield attacker has scored five league goals and perhaps been most effective without the ball helping Cardiff in their press and making runs to stretch opponents’ backlines.

Whether Grant will be with Cardiff next season or not, he believes that the team are heading in the right direction.

“There’s a lot of potential, 100%,” he said.

“It’s a young-ish team, with everyone at a good age.

“We came off the back of four wins in a row before we lost at Swansea, but I think that as long as we keep believing, then we can end the season really strong.”