Gabbidon. Sooner or later?

CARDIFF CITY'S Wales defender Daniel Gabbidon, sidelined since early November with a mystery back problem, could be out for a further six weeks at least.

Bluebirds manager Lennie Lawrence said it was "a possibility" that centre-half Gabbidon will return by the end of March.

The former West Bromwich Albion player has been out since November 9 when he came off at half-time in the 3-2 defeat at Barnsley with a back injury.

Lawrence was hoping the 23-year-old would recover in time for the home clash with Chesterfield a fortnight later.

But more than three months after his Oakwell nightmare and there is still no sign of Gabbidon returning.

And Lawrence is unsure if he will be available to Wales manager Mark Hughes for the Euro 2004 qualifiers against Azerbaijan (March 29) and Serbia-Montenegro (April 2).

"There's no way I'm going to rush him back," he said. "I wouldn't dismiss Gabbs being fit by the end of March but, at the same time, I don't want to put pressure on him to be fit by then.

"It's a possibility that he'll be ready to play in six weeks time, but it's no stronger than that."

The Bluebirds have clearly missed the defender since they have found it hard to keep clean sheets in his absence.

And considering the ease Bosnia-Herzegovina carved open the Welsh defence in their 2-2 draw at the Millennium Stadium last Wednesday, Wales manager Mark Hughes could do with the Cwmbran-born player returning to the international fold.

But Lawrence said, "Yes, it has been frustrating not having Gabbs. But a lot of clubs rush players back from injury and I've never done that - and I'm certainly not going to do it with a player like Daniel Gabbidon.

"It has to be said that Gabbs has trained and played in a worse state than he is at the moment. But we are holding him back because we want to get him right - and I mean right.

"I don't want him to go back out playing when he's only half-right or two two-thirds right. He has to be 100 per cent right. And to achieve that we've got to do it this way."

Gabbidon has been plagued by back problems throughout his short career and his current condition is worrying the City faithful who are wondering when he will be returning to first-team duty.

But Lawrence explained, "We're moving along. We've stepped up work with him this week and we'll step it up again next week.

"We're treating this situation as a re-education process. We're unravelling a big problem and putting it back together again."