Alex Pritchard is expected to be out for up to a month after suffering a recurrence of his calf injury. The midfielder lasted just five minutes after coming on as a substitute in last week's 4-1 win at Wigan Athletic as he tried to make his comeback from the initial problem, which he picked up against West Brom before Christmas.
And head coach Tony Mowbray says the 29-year-old is effectively back at square one, and Sunderland will take a more cautious approach with Pritchard this time around. "I think it's about as bad as it was first time round," said Mowbray.
"We're anticipating that he will be out anywhere from two to four weeks - I was going to say three weeks, but it could be a bit more or a bit less. He probably needs to do a full week's training, rather than just two or three days game-prep training [as he did in the run-up to the Wigan game] and thinking that he's ready.
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"I think we'll be more cautious building up this second time around after an injury like that. Forget the Swansea game next weekend, and you can probably forget Middlesbrough the week after that.
"The good thing is that we are not playing back-to-back three-game weeks at the moment, so he is not missing lots and lots of games. He'll miss maybe three or four games and then he should be ready."
Pritchard has been an important part of Sunderland's side this season, featuring in 23 of their 26 games so far - with 21 of those appearances starts.
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