Dennis Cirkin will be absent again this weekend against Stoke City as the Sunderland defender continues to feel the after-effects of the concussion he suffered a month ago. Cirkin was knocked out as he headed the Black Cats' equaliser at Millwall on February 4.
Sunderland followed the concussion protocols which meant Cirkin sat out the next two games before being cleared to resume playing, and he was eased back into action as a substitute in the win at QPR and the draw at home to Bristol City, and then returning to the starting line-up at Rotherham nine days ago. But he was not in the squad for last weekend's trip to Coventry City, with boss Tony Mowbray explaining afterwards that Cirkin was still not feeling 100 percent and had been sent for a scan.
Today Mowbray said that Cirkin would take part in some non-contact training but is not yet ready for full training, and that means he will not be involved when Alex Neil's Potters visit the Stadium of Light on Saturday. "With Dennis, it's probably still probably a bit up in the air with the concussion protocols," said Mowbray.
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"He's had a scan and there's no damage as such, but we have to follow the protocol until he's fully right. He's still a little bit fuzzy, he doesn't feel fully right and so at this moment, he might join in bits of non-contact training but nothing where he’s going to challenge for headers or go into tackles.
"He feels fine within himself but he's not 100 percent and he has to be [fully recovered] before he can be put back in."
Lynden Gooch is also edging closer to a return as he recovers from the hip flexor injury that has kept him out since mid-January, and while he will not be involved against Stoke he could come into contention for the following weekend's trip to Norwich City. Mowbray said: "Lynden's going to train today.
"It'll be his first day back, although it'll be a bit non-contact training. When we get to the nitty-gritty of the session, he'll probably drop out, but he'll do the warm-up, he'll do the passing and he'll do the directional possessions and stuff like that.
"Then, when it gets into teams and trying to score goals against each other, he'll probably drop out of that. That'll get built up over this week.
"It [a return to the team] won't be this weekend, but maybe next weekend. If he can have a full week of proper training, then there should be a chance of him being in contention for Norwich."
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