Bardsley & Evans double blow
Sunderland might have lost Phil Bardsley and Jonny Evans for the rest of the season.
The two players, who have been the cornerstone of the club's defensive revival in 2008, both missed the Tyne-Wear derby yesterday as the Black Cats slumped to a 2-0 defeat.
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And boss Roy Keane confirmed afterwards that Bardsley had damaged his knee in training and Evans his hamstring.
Rumours that Bardsley's knee injury is very serious, have not been confirmed. But it must have been a bad knock to keep him out of his first Tyne-Wear derby.
And as for Evans, had his hamstring strain been only minor there is every chance he would have been risked for yesterday's game – Sunderland's biggest of the four matches that remained.
The fact that he was not involved suggests that the strain was too bad for him to play, and the normal treatment time for such injuries is between four and six weeks – a timeframe which would effectively rule him out of the rest of the campaign.
Keane did not want to dwell on the injuries after yesterday's derby defeat, preferring to emphasise the fact that regardless of injuries, his team should have done better.
He suggested that they might be 50-50 for this Saturday's game against Middlesbrough. But the signs are that both players could be out of the home derby clash – and possibly sidelined for much longer.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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