Exactly when Sunderland's injured players are scheduled to return and Lee Johnson's plans for the meantime explained

As Lee Johnson nears a year at the helm on Wearside, he is facing one of his toughest tests.
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Seven senior players, all of whom could be considered strong options to start league games, have been sidelined with injury.

Most challenging is that it has left with severely limited options both at full back and in central midfield.

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As happened last season when he was left with virtually no senior centre-back options, he is faced with trying to find tactical solutions that keep players in relatively settled positions, and ones that aren't entirely unfamiliar.

Sunderland full back Dennis CirkinSunderland full back Dennis Cirkin
Sunderland full back Dennis Cirkin

So when exactly will Johnson's options begin to improve again?

The Sunderland head coach said yesterday that he is hopeful to have two players back sometime this month, understood to be Dennis Cirkin and Corry Evans.

Cirkin recently had a hernia operation but Johnson has explained that the surgery option taken was the 'best-case scenario'. That means the full back is expected back around three weeks from the date of the operation, raising the prospect of some involvement around the festive fixtures.

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Evans is also due back around then, although Sunderland are yet to fully assess the impact of a thigh problem picked up in the warm up at Cambridge United.

The initial prognosis is an absence of two to four weeks.

Getting that duo back to fitness would be a boost for Johnson, as it would give him the option of returning to a back four if desired.

Not only would Cirkin finally give him a natural full-back option, but Evans' return would also create the option of returning Carl Winchester to the right-back berth he so excelled in earlier this season.

Having said that, the Northern Irishman was superb at the heart of midfield at the Abbey Stadium and may well see this as a major opportunity to make the position his own. There is certainly a marked increase in both the confidence and tenacity with which he plays at the moment.

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Next slated for a return is Denver Hume, on track to return around two months from the ankle injury sustained at QPR.

That means a possible return at the turn of the year, with Niall Huggins expected to be a few weeks behind him.

Both, it should be said, have had little football this season and so will not be at full match sharpness straight away.

A little further behind will be Aiden McGeady and Luke O'Nien.

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It is hoped that McGeady will be fit again in February, with O'Nien perhaps returning around a month after that.

O'Nien's recovery timeline is not fully set at this stage, but the initial feedback to the club has been that it is likely to be closer to three months than the nine initially feared.

All of which means that it seems highly likely that Johnson will temporarily continue with the shift to a five-man defence.

Lynden Gooch has impressed as a wing back in the past and again on Saturday, and while it is unfamiliar to Leon Dajaku on the opposite flank, he made a solid start at Cambridge.

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Johnson has looked at the free agent market and says there are options there, but would prefer to promote from within.

That a full back and central midfielder will be key January priorities is increasingly obvious.

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