Sunderland boss gives Ethan Robson update as midfielder suffers further frustration

The 21-year-old has endured a frustrating season so far but impressed in the first half against Carlisle United, scoring a fine goal.

He subsequently went off with an injury that Ross hoped was not serious.
However, he is yet to return to training.

“Ethan’s injury is a little bit worse than we thought,” Ross said.

“At the time we didn’t think it was too bad, but further examination has not been great.

“He hasn’t trained at all yet, we’ll keep assessing it. There’s no timeframe at the moment but he certainly won’t be available for Saturday, which is a blow because it lightens us in that area of the pitch again.

“I feel for him,” Ross aded.

“For me it’s part of the job as manager to deal with whatever challenges come my way, I never complain about having players unavailable.

“For him it’s frustrating because we’ve spoken about him before, having a good pre-season then suffering an injury and slipping down the pecking order a little bit.

“Against Carlisle it looked like he was taking that opportunity so to be injured again is disappointing.

“It’s my job to ensure he remains upbeat and positive during this period, so that hopefully when he comes back fit he can be back at that level we saw.”

With Max Power suspended, Robson’s injury is likely to present another place in the matchday squad to Bali Mumba.

Mumba has been away with the England U18 side but returned to training on Thursday.

Ross admitted last that Mumba has been prominent in his thoughts and was unlucky not to feature against Peterborough United or Bradford City.