Cardiff City: Joe Ralls offered new contract as eight players leave Bluebirds

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Image caption, Sean Morrison (left) and Joe Ralls (right) have made more than 600 Cardiff appearances between them

Cardiff City's longest-serving player Joe Ralls has been offered a new contract by the Championship club, who have released eight players.

Wales international Will Vaulks has been released, along with Leandro Bacuna, Isaac Vassell, Ciaron Brown and Josh Murphy.

Alex Smithies, Aden Flint and Marlon Pack had already said they would leave.

Captain Sean Morrison will continue his rehabilitation from a long-term knee injury at the club.

Morrison, 31, has not played since February when he was carried off during a game at Barnsley after which manager Steve Morison said he expected the centre-back to be sidelined for nine months.

Morrison arrived in south Wales in a 拢3m deal from Reading in 2014 and went on to make 295 appearances, including 34 in the Premier League.

Ralls has made 308 appearances since joining the club as a teenager in 2011,

The duo are the last players left at the club who featured in Cardiff's promotion to the Premier League under Neil Warnock in 2018.

Bacuna and Murphy also featured in the top flight under Warnock, though the former has not played since receiving a red card - and criticism from boss Morison - against Bournemouth in December 2021.

The 28-year-old Vaulks, capped seven times, but omitted from the Wales squad for June's international fixtures, leaves after three years at Cardiff.

He featured regularly in 2021-22 and made 117 Cardiff appearances in total, scoring 11 goals.

Murphy, an 拢11m signing from Norwich in 2018, leaves after 99 appearances, having spent the past season on loan at Preston.