Tony Mowbray has hinted he would play Sunderland's sole striker Joe Gelhardt in the FA Cup tonight - if that option had been open to him. The Black Cats take on Premier League Fulham at the Stadium of Light in a fourth round replay this evening after the initial meeting between the sides ended in a 1-1 draw.
Sunderland will go into the replay with no out-and-out centre-forward available after top scorer Ross Stewart suffered a season-ending Achilles injury at Craven Cottage, while on-loan Leeds United frontman Joe Gelhardt is cup-tied. If Gelhardt had been available, however, Mowbray would have had a decision to make given that it would have been a risk to play his only fit striker in the cup when an injury could rule him out of crucial Championship games.
In the event, it is not a decision that Mowbray needs to make but he has indicated he would have been inclined to play Gelhardt if he could, pointing out that he played Stewart in the third round of the cup at Shrewsbury Town when at that stage the Scot was Sunderland's only available striker. "We had that decision to make with Ross at Shrewsbury, before Gelhardt came in, and we played him," he said.
