LONDON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cardiff City coach Neil Warnock admitted on Monday that the past week has been the most difficult of his long career in football management following the disappearance of newly signed striker, Emiliano Sala in a plane crash.
Sala and pilot David Ibbotson were in a light plane which disappeared from radar and presumably crashed in the English Channel on January 21. The search operation was ended after three days and although a private search was reopened after a crowdfunding appeal by Sala's sister Romina, there is hardly any chance of finding Sala alive.
"I've been in football management now 40 years I think it's by far the most difficult week in my career, by an absolute mile," said Warnock.
"It's traumatic. Even now, I can't get my head around the situation. When I look at Romina and the family, etc. I think it's such a difficult time."
"I keep looking at my own children and thinking what I would be doing now as well. So it's very traumatic. My sympathies are with them," continued the coach.
Warnock admitted the tragedy had affected the club, who are fighting to avoid relegation from the Premier League, and said there had been a "somber mood all week."
"I've never experienced anything like it. Things like this just don't happen, or you don't think they happen. It probably hits me harder than anybody else because I've met the lad and talked to him for the last six or eight weeks on numerous occasions and I know how much he was looking forward to this," he added.
The 70-year-old even admitted he had considered stepping down from his post. "Even as I sit here now, I think that would be true: there are more important things. It takes something like this to make you realize," he concluded.
