Sunderland travel to face Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Good Friday

Bristol City have been dealt a major blow after Mark Sykes was ruled out for the rest of the campaign.

Sykes picked up an injury in the warm up ahead of the 1-1 draw with QPR last weekend and tests on his quad issue this week have confirmed that he is now facing an extended spell on the sidelines. Sykes will miss the clash with Sunderland on Good Friday and head coach Liam Manning has strongly hinted that he will not be able to feature in the play-offs if The Robins do indeed finish in the top six.

"That's probably the season done for him," Manning said.

"He pulled his quad so I don't expect to see him for a while. I'm gutted for him and he's gutted as well. You could see, his performance level, he'd done terrifically well, especially top end of the pitch and he was quite key in some of the bits that we were doing. Big, big blow to lose him, I know he's gutted, we're obviously gutted but, it's part and parcel of it. We then have to make sure we get around him, look after him, and get him back right.

"What it does do is then open the door for somebody else to have an opportunity."

Sykes was replaced in the starting XI last weekend by Yu Hirakawa.

Goalkeeper Max O'Leary is also a doubt for Friday's game. O'Leary rolled his ankle in the warm up at QPR and though he was able to play in the game, he did not train until Thursday this week.

"He's not trained all week," Manning said.

"That pitch was dangerous, we flagged it. You see the linesman at the end, there was a real rut on the end of it where the grass met the astro so it was quite dangerous.

"He went over on it, got through the game, not trained all week but hopefully, he'll be okay for tomorrow. He came through this morning okay.

"He did a little bit this morning, not a lot, so you have to see how he responds to that and then obviously we'll make a decision today."

Though forward Harry Cornick is out of Friday's game due to injury, Bristol City expect that he would be fully fit for the play-offs.

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