Neil Warnock suggests Cardiff’s upcoming game with Leeds tempted Joe Bennett to get himself intentionally sent off

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Joe Bennett was sent off during Cardiff City’s FA Cup tie ahead of their Championship clash with Leeds United.

Leroy Sane of Manchester City is tackled by Joe Bennett of Cardiff City

In comments reported by The Sun, Neil Warnock has suggested that Joe Bennett got himself sent off intentionally during Cardiff’s FA Cup tie with Manchester City because he did not want to be involved in the Championship clash with Leeds.

Bennett was given his marching orders during the contest at the Cardiff City Stadium as the Premier League leaders ran out 2-0 winners. In all honesty, he could have arguably had few complaints if his first-half challenge on Leroy Sane prompted Lee Mason to show him a straight red card.

His afternoon did end early during the second-half however, as another wild challenge saw him sent off in stoppage-time. And after the game, Warnock slammed his own player, insisting that he wanted to be dismissed to get out of the game at Elland Road next weekend.

“I was disappointed with the sending off because he obviously doesn’t want to go to Leeds,” he said, as reported by The Sun.

“When you are on a yellow, that’s pathetic, that’s disrespectful to his team-mates.”

Neil Warnock

It will be a blow for Cardiff to not have Bennett – who spent more than a decade on Middlesbrough’s books earlier in his career and endured a brief loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday, so would probably not be the Leeds fans’ favourite player – available for the trip to the Whites as he has featured in 23 of their 28 Championship games this term.

Leeds are currently enduring a poor run but they do have plenty of quality going forward, so Warnock may well have felt that having his first-choice defence could have been crucial to their hopes of securing another positive result over the Whites.