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The latest injury news as Sunderland prepare to return to Championship action with a home game against Millwall on Saturday.
Sunderland have been handed a major injury concern as they prepare for their final push for promotion into the Premier League.
The Black Cats may well sit 11 points adrift of the automatic promotion places in the Championship - but they seem all but certain to secure one of the four play-off places and that means they remain firmly in the hunt to bring an end to their eight-year absence from English football’s top tier. With several players currently on international duty, Regis Le Bris will have been hoping for positive news upon their return to Wearside as he plans for Saturday’s home game with Millwall.
However, there has already been one injury concern confirmed after Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill confirmed Black Cats full-back Trai Hume would not feature in Tuesday night’s friendly with Sweden and has now returned to the North East for further assessment on a hip injury. The former Linfield defender has become a key part of the Sunderland side over the last two seasons and his form on Wearside has led to him becoming an integral figure within the Northern Ireland squad.
After featuring heavily at several youth levels, Hume earned his 19th senior cap in Friday night’s 1-1 draw with Switzerland - but the Sunderland defender has aggravated a hip problem and the Black Cats will not investigate the injury before deciding on his involvement in Saturday’s game and beyond.
Speaking on Monday, Northern Ireland manager O’Neill said: "He'd not really been training with Sunderland, just playing games and getting through games. He felt quite sore after the game on Friday and we thought rather than put him through that again it was better to send him back to the club and have that investigated. It's not something that we want, or Sunderland want, to drag on. They've got a lot to play for and we would not want him to come here and subsequently miss the games in June either."
The news will be a further blow for Le Bris who has injury concerns over several members of his squad ahead of the meeting with the Lions. Dennis Cirkin and Enzo Le Fee are both classed as slight doubts as they continue to make their way back from injury and defender Dan Ballard and midfielder Salis Abdul Samed are expected to be out of action until next month. The likes of Ian Poveda, Niall Huggins, Aji Alese, Trey Ogunsuyi, Ahmed Abdullahi and Jayden Danns will also miss out.
Former Sunderland star George Honeyman is one of a number of Millwall players expected to miss the trip to the Stadium of Light after Lions boss Alex Neil confirmed the midfielder will need a scan on a groin injury. Femi Azeez, Danny McNamara and Calum Scanlon have also been ruled out and former Black Cats transfer target Macaulay Langstaff and Ryan Leonard are both rated as doubtful.
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Related topics:SunderlandNorthern IrelandMillwall
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