Sunderland boss names the player close to injury comeback in full team news update

Mike Dodds has confirmed that Corry Evans is close to making his Sunderland comeback, though it may be that he makes his return to the squad at Watford next weekend.

Evans has been back in full training for a few weeks and is in contention to travel to Vicarage Road, though Dodds has also confirmed that the game will come too soon for Dennis Cirkin as he makes progress in his recovery from a hamstring issue.

Though there are one or two doubts for Millwall’s visit to the Stadium of Light on Saturday, Dodds is expecting to name a similar squad to last week’s games at Leeds and West Brom.

“We’ve got a couple of niggles which we’ve had to be a little bit cautious with today, but the group are OK in the main,” Dodds said.

“We’re fully prepared for the weekend, with a little bit of final preparations to do tomorrow. We know we’re going into a completely different type of game this weekend but we’ll be fully prepared for that. Corry had a week where he had a little bit of a flare up with his groin. He has been training with the group. If not this weekend, definitely the following weekend providing everything goes alright with Corry.

“It will definitely be too soon for Dennis. I’ve had a conversation with Dennis this morning. He part trained with the group. Obviously Dennis is very keen to be back amongst the squad and try and get involved. Unfortunately I’m going to have to be the voice of reason for him because he’s had a significant amount of time off. We want to try and get him on the pitch before the summer but I think we are going to have to take it week by week.”

Dodds also confirmed that Nazariy Rusyn remains sidelined with a calf problem, and it remains touch and go whether he will feature again before the end of the campaign.

Dodds said:  “I think the reality is this game and the next game will probably be too close. Sheffield Wednesday potentially will probably be more realistic.”