Tony Mowbray decided against gambling with Dennis Cirkin's fitness against Blackpool - opting to give him a few more days to recover from his hamstring injury. Mowbray had said on the eve of the game that the defender would be included on the bench after overcoming the injury he suffered in early September, but the 20-year-old was a surprise omission from the teamsheet.
And after the game Mowbray revealed that Cirkin felt he needed a little more time, and he is now expected to be part of the squad for Sunderland's trip to Swansea on Saturday. "Dennis wasn't quite right," said Mowbray.
"I had a long chat with Dennis on Monday and I think he wasn't quite 100 percent clear in his mind that his hamstring was ready. He wouldn't have started the game anyway.
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"He's just about there, but we made a decision not to gamble because the back four wasn't going to change because it is performing at a high level. He did a hard training session on Monday.
"When you train, you can control the sprints and how hard you push yourself - in a game you have to sprint when you have to sprint and you have to make slide tackles and stretch yourself. He's pushing himself really hard and there's another game in a few days so he will probably be in contention for it so he'll probably be coming to Swansea with us."
Against Blackpool, Sunderland kept a second successive clean sheet - and their third in four games - and with Aji Alese continuing to impress at left-back, there was no rush to bring Cirkin back into the side.
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