Roko Simic reflects on time at Cardiff City: ‘I didn’t know what would happen’ | OneFootball

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sky Germany, Roko Simic (21) discussed his time at Cardiff City last season, where he spent most of the campaign sidelined with a nerve injury.

After joining Cardiff City from RB Salzburg for €2m last summer, Simic was injured for almost the entire season. “It was a new environment for me. I had no preparation. Everything was new to me. I needed time to develop but before that, I got injured. I lost a lot of time trying to figure out what kind of injury I had.”

It turned out that the Croatian forward had a nerve problem, something that took six months to diagnose.

“At the beginning, I was filled with bad thoughts,” said Simic. “I didn’t know what would happen; I couldn’t help my team. Over time, I learned to relax and be patient. I see last season as one in which I had to go through a lot and learned how to deal with difficult times. That will help me a lot in the future.”

And now Simic is injury free.

Following Cardiff’s relegation from the Championship, Simic joined 2. Bundesliga club Karlsruher SC on loan for the 2025-26 campaign, and has already made his debut in the opening round of fixtures. They had already shown previous interest in signing the Croat: “Assistant coach Zlatan Bajramovic was in Croatia two years ago to meet with my father and me. He wanted to bring me to Karlsruhe back then, but I decided otherwise.

“Now I’m very happy to be here. This is the best decision for me. All the last strikers have scored here. If I do my best, I’ll do the same,” Simic told Sky Germany.

GGFN | Daniel Pinder