Tony Mowbray is 'hopeful' that Ellis Simms will be able to line up against Watford tomorrow - even though a scan on his toe injury came came back with an inconclusive result. On-loan Everton striker Simms travelled from Sunderland's temporary Berkshire training base into central London yesterday for a scan to check whether he had broken his big toe in Wednesday's win at Reading.
The scan gave no definitive answer, but Mowbray says Simms will be involved in some light training today before a decision is taken over his availability for tomorrow's game at Vicarage Road. "He went into central London and had a scan," said Mowbray.
"It was a little bit inconclusive - it's his big toe. It's really player management on that, it's about how he feels when he's out on the grass.
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"That's why he's going to put his boots on and if it feels fine, he'll turn a jog into a run, and from there to a sprint, and until he does that, we'll have to see how he gets on. We're hoping he's going to be OK.
"I've just been talking to him there at breakfast, he'll have a jog about on the grass today and we'll wait and see. If the worst comes to worst and he can't make the game tomorrow, we've got a break for two weeks and I'm sure he'll be fine after that.
"It's touch and go [for tomorrow] as I sit here now, it'll depend on our training session this afternoon and how he goes in that."
Simms limped off in the first off at Reading, which was a major blow for the Black Cats as he was the club's only fit senior striker in the absence of top scorer Ross Stewart, who will be missing for at least six weeks with a thigh injury. But Sunderland came to terms with the situation as Patrick Roberts scored twice, and Jack Clarke added the third, to complete a 3-0 win.
Mowbray said: "It's not all doom and gloom, even if Ellis doesn't make tomorrow - we scored three goals without him on the pitch on Wednesday night. We have to find a way, we know we're playing a really strong side who were in the Premier League last year.
"They'll be hurting from the other night [when Watford lost 2-0 at home to Mowbray's former team Blackburn Rovers] and they'll have a crowd right behind them, and our job is to go and try make them a bit nervous, keep the ball off them and try to create the chances. It's going to be a really interesting game.
"We have kept our feet on the ground after Wednesday night, and I hope I'm not sat after the game talking to you about how we maybe thought we were better than we are against Premier League quality. We will go out there from the first whistle to compete first and foremost, we'll look to put our game plan into action and hopefully have a positive day."
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