Championship news: Ex-Leeds United ace hands Sunderland major boost, Cardiff City reveal new boss

Here are the latest Championship headlines.

Cardiff have appointed Mark Hudson as their first-team manager until the end of the season

The former Bluebirds captain, 40, was handed the role on a temporary basis after Steve Morison was sacked in September with the club sitting 18th in the Sky Bet Championship.

Hudson, who made over 160 appearances in all competitions as a player for the Bluebirds between 2009-14, has won four of his 11 games in charge.

After back-to-back home defeats to Hull and Sheffield United, Cardiff sit 19th in the table, one point above the relegation zone.

Cardiff confirmed Tom Ramasut will continue as assistant manager, alongside newly-appointed first-team coach Dean Whitehead and goalkeeping coach Graham Stack.

Hudson told the club’s official website: “I’d like to take the opportunity of thanking (club owner) Tan Sri Vincent and the board for putting their faith in me and my backroom team.”

Sunderland handed boost

Sunderland defender Niall Huggins has been reflecting on his return to action after more than a year out through injury.

Huggins returned as a shock starter in the 2-1 win over Birmingham City last Friday night, following a lengthy spell out with a stress fracture of the back.

Reflecting on his year out, Huggins told the club website: “I think it’s been like 14 months since I last played 90 minutes for the first-team. It was a bit of a shock, it was a bit last minute going straight into the game but I was in to do a job.

“It’s been really tough. It’s not been straight forward because sometimes with an injury, you know what your road to recovery looks like whereas I’ve had so many different injuries where I’ve got to the point where I’ve started running outside for a few weeks and then I would get another setback.

"It maybe happened like three or four times I was out on the grass so I could taste playing football again. For this time, we tried a different way of recovering, more of just going straight into football and taking it slower and slower. This way seems to have worked really well.”