Jack Ross gives Sunderland injury update and latest plans for Joel Lynch and Laurens De Bock debuts

The pair both featured against Middlesbrough U23s on Monday night, playing an hour and 90 minutes respectively in a 3-2 defeat.

The trip to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday will come too soon for both, while Duncan Watmore remains sidelined with a thigh problem.

Ross is also monitoring a ‘couple’ of players who picked up knocks in the 1-1 draw with Rotherham.

“Duncan is still unavailable,” Ross said.

“Laurens and Joel will probably come into the side for Sheffield United.

“We have a couple of concerns who didn’t train today. We’ll see how they are.”

Lynch had initially planned to play the full game againt Middlesbrough, but came off early with a groin concern.

The centre-back is back in training, though, and so Ross hopes he will be able to stick to his plan in including him in the squad that travels to face Sheffield United in the Carabao Cup next week.

“He’s OK, he trained today,” Ross said.

“He’s effectively going through a pre-season.

“All being well, I’d like to include him against Sheffield United and then he’ll be properly at it.”

De Bock has been behind Lynch after arriving at the club on deadline day, but will not feature when the U23s face Swansea City on Sunday.

He too is in line to play some part at Bramall Lane.

The Belgian impressed on Monday and the Black Cats boss believes his defensive attributes will prove useful.

“With Laurens, we just plan on him doing his work with us and then hopefully it can be geared towards him being involved against Sheffield United,” Ross said.

“It was clear to see when he came in very quickly that he does enjoy defending.

“He’s aggressive, he enjoys that side of the game.

“We saw that in the U23s game. The way we play, there will be an onus on him to get forward but it’s a very good starting point to have those defensive attributes to begin with. He does have a good left foot and that will help him when he does get higher up the pitch.”