Football: Warnock shattered by Sala plane crash tragedy

Neil Warnock believes he flew with the pilot now missing. Photo / Getty Images

Neil Warnock has revealed how the Emiliano Sala plane tragedy has left him thinking about quitting football 24 hours a day.

"In an ideal world, I don't think I'd like another game at all," said the Cardiff City manager, who described for the first time how the ordeal had left him "shattered".

In an emotion-charged press conference, the 70-year-old said he had received counselling, along with "one or two" players. He added Sala's family were right to keep searching for the single-engined Piper PA-46-310P Malibu, which has been missing in the English Channel since January 21.

"If it was my kid, I'd want everybody looking at it for ever," he said.

"I've been in football management now for 40 years and it's by far the most difficult week in my career by an absolute mile," Warnock added. "Even now, I can't get my head around the situation."

The Cardiff squad had last seen Sala 10 days ago when he visited Warnock at the training ground, midway through his medical to join the club. The pair joked about his scruffy jeans - but the star signing from Nantes reassured his new manager that he would score the goals to keep Cardiff in the Premier League.

"He had holes everywhere in his trousers and looked like a tramp," Warnock said. "I said he'd fit in very well with our team because we've got quite a few like that. That's the memory I'll have because we had a laugh. He said 'I'll score you the goals', and I said 'I know you will'."

Sala was "an ugly footballer, a scruffy footballer", who Warnock said was bound to fit in, because he "gave everything, 100 per cent, every time he played".

Warnock, who had been calling the club's record £15 million signing "Emile", remains tormented by the fact he had invited Sala to watch Cardiff's defeat at Newcastle on the weekend the player instead chose to board the doomed flight to Nantes.

"I do keep thinking back," Warnock added. "You're not asking yourself 'should I have made him come up?' because it's after the event. He wanted to go back and see his teammates and family, and get his belongings for the following week, so that's what happened. I just thanked him and off we went."

The manager said the tragedy "is a turning point in many respects" and he has sought help "because you don't realise the trauma that it causes a lot of families".

Emergency services last week gave up hope of finding Sala's plane, but searches in the Channel were resumed after Lionel Messi and a host of renowned players backed a GoFundMe campaign for a private rescue mission.

Warnock said he had been on "a couple of planes like" the one Sala flew, "but I think the ones I'd be on might have had two engines". He suggested he had also been flown by Dave Ibbotson, the 59-year-old pilot who was at the controls.

"I'd been over the top to Nantes a couple of times, and I do think I had that pilot - who I thought was a fabulous pilot," he added. "I just can't comprehend it."

He said the disaster had left it "impossible to sleep".

"In the past, when you're a football manager, you wake up at 4am thinking of your team selection and little trivial things, but this is way beyond anything like that," he added. "I've never experienced anything like it."

Warnock said "you'd be surprised" by the players who had sought help.

"It has been noticeable this last week that three or four lads have been really poor - really poor - in training," he said. "In an ideal world, I don't think I'd like another game at all. That's how I feel at the minute."