Niall Huggins will be in Sunderland's squad for tomorrow's trip to Birmingham City - with Tony Mowbray hinting that the Black Cats have been hit by more injury woes. Defender Huggins has been out for over a year with back and heel problems but has recently returned to action for the U21s, and has this week begun training with the first team.
And the indications are that Huggins could be needed at St Andrew's, with Mowbray saying he had 'lots' of injury problems although he declined to go into detail. Sunderland are already without Ross Stewart, Daniel Ballard, Aji Alese, Lynden Gooch, and Edouard Michut through injury, while Luke O'Nien must sit out tomorrow's game through suspension after accumulating his fifth booking of the season.
But those absences are already known about, and Mowbray's comments today suggested that his squad has been further depleted. Asked about injuries, he said: "There are lots - but not that I can tell you about!
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"I understand my job and we are judged by results and where we are in the table. But are we unlucky with injuries?
"I don't know. I can reel it out for you - every team has injuries, don't they?
"But we are missing some pretty crucial footballers. You'll see tomorrow, and I'll talk after the game about what I think.
"I don't want to talk about it now and let Birmingham's coaching staff know what's coming."
Huggins' return is a plus for Mowbray, and he added: "The one positive I could probably mention is that Niall Huggins is back on the grass. He's been out for over a year, he's played a couple of games for the U21s and he is back now training with the first team.
"It was his first day the other day training with the first team because as he has just been coming back to fitness he has been training with the U21s so that the intensityy levels have been a bit easier for him, but now he is fully back in with the first team and he will be on the coach travelling with us to Birmingham."
Ellis Simms made his first start last weekend after recovering from a toe injury, and he played just over 70 minutes of Sunderland's home defeat at the hands of Cardiff City. Mowbray confirmed that the on-loan Everton striker came through the game unscathed, although he says Simms is still working his way back to fitness and that was evident against Cardiff.
He said: "Injury-wise, he was fine. I just felt he lacked the intensity to play in the position that he should have done.
"Not the attacking intensity - modern day football is about showing your supporters that you can play on the front foot and take a few gambles by pressing teams higher up and winning the ball back quicker. With Ellis' lack of aerobic capacity, and a couple of lads behind him that weren't really engaged and switched on to it, it just became a bit of an issue for us.
"That's something I have to learn from and the team has to learn from."
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