Luke O'Nien is set to return to the Sunderland squad ahead of this weekend's game against Birmingham City. The defender was left at home on Wearside last weekend as the Black Cats made the long journey to South Wales to take on Cardiff City, with boss Tony Mowbray explaining afterwards that O'Nien's wife Georgia was due to give birth imminently and it was decided that the six-and-a-half hour trip would have left him too far from home.
As yet, there has been no change in the situation but the fact that Sunderland are at home against the Blues means that O'Nien will be part of Mowbray's plans - although the head coach stopped short of confirming that the 27-year-old would make an immediate return to the starting XI after the team kept a clean sheet in the 1-0 win at Cardiff. "He trained today, and he's trained for the last few days, so we'll see how he fares and how things roll with that," said Mowbray.
"He'll come in and train tomorrow and we'll assess it. He'll be in the matchday squad unless matchday is the day [his wife gives birth].
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"We'll do the stuff on team structure on Friday and I'll sleep on it in terms of whether we bring Luke straight back in or not."
Aside from O'Nien's inclusion in the squad, Mowbray says there are no changes to the pool of players he had available at Cardiff. Ross Stewart (Achilles), Corry Evans (cruciate ligament), Aji Alese (thigh), and Jewison Bennette (dislocated shoulder) have all been ruled out for the season.
Defender Dan Ballard has been ruled out for between two and three weeks with a hamstring issue but that timescale gives him an outside chance of being involved at the back end of the season although Mowbray says Sunderland will not take any unnecessary risks by trying to rush him back into action.
He said: "Ballard might be ready for the second last game of the season [against Watford at home]. Maybe, if we’re pushing it. If we don’t need to, then we won't [risk him]. But there'll be nobody else [of the long-term injuries available]."
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