Former Norwich City midfielder Simon Lappin has joined Cardiff City in a permanent deal until the summer of 2014.

Lappin, previously on loan at the Championship leaders in November last year, has been snapped up by Bluebirds boss Malky Mackay after leaving Carrow Road by mutual consent earlier this month.

Lappin told Cardiff City’s official website: “I’m absolutely delighted to be signing for Cardiff City on a permanent deal and pleased that we’ve now finalised everything.

“I’m looking forward to the rest of the season now and hopefully we can continue the good form we’ve been showing the past couple of months.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my loan spell here with a great squad of lads. The manager, staff and everyone at the club have been fantastic with me and when I heard they wanted me back here on a permanent deal it was an easy decision to return.

“January has been a bit disrupted with the FA Cup fixtures splitting the Championship calendar. But we’re all chomping at the bit now to face Leeds at their place on Saturday afternoon where we’ll have to be on top of our game once again to get the result.

“We’ve got a lot of challenges coming up and we need to be ready every time we step out there now to achieve what we want to.”