Blackburn Rovers' on-loan Cardiff City defender Greg Cunningham says he was determined to play on following the injury he picked up away at QPR in early October, before getting a 'crunchy feeling' in the back of his knee.

Cunningham picked up the knock just 20 minutes into the match at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, with the defender confirming a few days later that he had torn his ACL, which is now set to keep him out for the rest of the season.

Despite the now evident severity of the injury, it seems Cunningham did not realise quite how serious things were at first, and when recalling the incident, the left-back told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I felt the contact and felt a crunchy feeling in the back of my knee at Queens Park Rangers, but I felt things would settle down.

“The physio was adamant at the time that I’d have to come off, but I was determined and just told him to give me a few minutes to see if it wears off.

“That’s just my nature. I wanted to give it a try, I jogged around for a bit and it didn’t seem to be settling down.

“But then the ball dropped and when I tried to turn it felt a little unstable, so it was at that point when I sensed there was something wrong."

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Given how he had initially been confident of playing on through the knock, it seems the full extent of the injury did come as a surprise to Cunningham, as he continued: “I didn’t think it was that bad at the time, so it was a bit of a shock when the scan results came back to give me the news.

“That’s football sometimes. It’s unlucky but you have to deal with it and move on.”

Providing an update on his recovery, it seems things are at least going well for Cunningham - who will see out his loan at Blackburn until the end of the season - as he added: “I’m not doing so bad and I’m just over two weeks post-operation now.

“I’m back around the boys and it’s just about cracking on with the rehabilitation now. 

“It takes a bit of time to get your head around the injury, but I’ve been in great hands with the medics both here and at Cardiff, alongside the surgeon in London, and everything went perfectly."

Cunningham's contract with parent club Cardiff is set to expire at the end of the 2019/20 season, and looking ahead to his return in that particular campaign, it seems the defender is in a confident mood, as he claimed: “I’m in the best possible hands here and we have the best of the best, so I know I’ll come back flying and fit ready for next season."

The Verdict

This is something that may well be hard to read for Blackburn fans.

Cunningham was something of a revelation for Rovers at the start of the season, and he has been a big miss since that injury-enforced absence, something evidenced by their recent poor run of results without him in the side.

You have to wonder therefore, if there may be some around the club will be left wondering whether things may not have been quite so serious had Cunningham come off when he first suffered the injury rather than trying to play on, which may have given Blackburn the opportunity to benefit from his talents at some point this season.

It is a difficult position Rovers find themselves in with regards to Cunningham now. On the one hand, his ability and popularity around the club means they may be tempted to bring him back to the club when he is fit again next summer. However, given that recent challenging run of results, you do have to wonder slightly whether they can wait that long to strengthen in that area again.