Tony Mowbray admits he feels for Niall Huggins after the defender missed out against Millwall after making such an impressive return from long-term injury before the World Cup break. Huggins made his comeback after 14 months on the sidelines in Sunderland's win at Birmingham City just before the break, playing out of position at left-back as the Black Cats dealt with a full-back crisis as at that stage they had Lynden Gooch, Aji Alese, and Dennis Cirkin out injured, while Luke O'Nien was suspended.
Former Leeds United man Huggins lasted the full 90 minutes at St Andrew's and Mowbray was full of praise for him, yet the 21-year-old did not even make the bench at the weekend when Sunderland's campaign resumed with a 3-0 win against Lions at the Stadium of Light. Afterwards, Mowbray explained there was no injury concern over Huggins and it was merely the fact that Gooch, Alese, Cirkin, and O'Nien were all available again - along with Trai Hume, who also played at Birmingham - which meant that someone had to miss out.
In the end, Mowbray brought Gooch in at right-back against Millwall, played Alese at left-back to make use of his height, while O'Nien played in central defence. Hume and Cirkin were on the bench, which left no place for Huggins.
"Huggins didn't even make the bench [against Millwall], but he has been out for a long, long, time and he was amazing against Birmingham," said Mowbray. "But that's football - I can only put seven on the bench, and I can only pick 11 on the pitch.
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"They're tough calls, but it's good to have a squad where you are leaving players out who genuinely believe they should be in, and yet they are not because of the quality they have in front of them."
Huggins' career at Sunderland has been badly disrupted by a back injury, which was followed by a heel problem. He had just begun to blossom prior to the initial injury in September 2021, but his display at Birmingham indicates that he is now fully fit, albeit he will need more gametime to get back up to speed.
But, with so many full-back options now available to Mowbray, Huggins will face stiff competition to get into the side. Mowbray said: "We had to play Niall at Birmingham.
"I had a chat with him and he was happy to give it a go. We thought we might get an hour out of him, but as that game rolled on he seemed fine and I kept asking him if he was OK and he was happy to keep going.
"He was fantastic against Birmingham, even though we asked him to play out of position. Saying that, I know he played a lot of football at left-back at Leeds United.
"As I've said previously, he was a player we tried to sign at [Mowbray's former club] Blackburn Rovers. I like Niall, I've liked him for a few years to be honest, so to see him and his enthusiasm on the training pitch and the quality he brings, he is an important addition to the group.
"He has some competition at the moment, if you think of both full-back positions. At left-back you've got Cirkin and Aji, who can both play centre-back as well, and then on the right you've got Trai Hume who has done so well and Gooch and O'Nien can play there, too.
"I'm just pleased that Niall is fit. He has to stay fit and train every day and build up his robustness. I'm sure he will feature plenty in the team as we move forward."
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