Tony Mowbray puts Sunderland's injury problems down to the sheer pace of the modern game. The Black Cats have been hampered by a series of injuries over the course of the season, with Ross Stewart, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton, Aji Alese, Dan Ballard, Lynden Gooch, and Jewison Bennette, all sidelined for long spells.
In the case of main striker Stewart, he has been fit for just 13 league games, while Embleton and Evans have missed around half the campaign. The Black Cats are by no means the only team to have struggled with a lengthy injury list this season but, as Mowbray points out, some clubs are better able to deal with such problems because they have a stronger squad or their injuries have not affected key players in the way that they have Sunderland.
More generally, injuries are more common these days than back in the 1980s when Mowbray began his playing career, when clubs often played the entire season using just 14 or 15 players rather than the 30-plus that is now the norm. Asked about the increased prevalance of injuries in the modern game, Mowbray said: "I think that's right. I don't think anyone can deny that.
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"I haven't asked the medical department to show me the data over the last ten years - I'm sure we've got it - but I do think that's the case. We've talked about it before but in the 1970s and 1980s team would play the full season with 14 players, and the vast majority of the time they would pick the same XI every single week.
"I think it's the speed of the game, everything is faster, everything is more prepared, more intense. And yet there is a lot less contact in football than there ever was, back when you could properly tackle people from behind and slide into people and whack people, compared to that there's almost no contact these days.
"It's just the speed of the game now, the quality of the pitches, the lightness of the balls, and the intensity of the coaching now to play quicker and to play in the pockets and the spaces and move the ball fast. Maybe it is the high speed that is causing more injuries."
Sunderland head to West Bromwich Albion tomorrow and their main injury worries are in defence, where the season-ending knee problem suffered by Danny Batth in midweek has left them with Luke O'Nien as the only senior man who has played regularly in that position. But they also have a concern at the other end of the pitch where on-loan Leeds United forward Joe Gelhardt - their only fit, out-and-out, striker - has been struggling with an ankle issue although he is expected to be fit to play.
"Every team is dealing with injuries, but some teams are a little bit more capable of dealing with their injuries - and sometimes they are not to their main, key, players," said Mowbray. "We'll deal with it - or, more accurately, the result will tell you if we've dealt with it.
"We've generally done alright trying to find a way. In the adversity of some bad luck or some injuries that have upset the balance of the team, we have generally managed to find a way. The hope is that we go to West Brom at midday tomorrow and play with lots of energy, lots of pride, lots of composure, and try to find a way of getting a victory.
"Injuries are a pretty common occurrence and every team has to deal with it. West Brom have lost some pretty key players as well, when I look at their team of recent weeks - their big centre-forward Daryl Dike who scored their winner against us earlier in the season has got the same injury that Ross Stewart has got."
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