Lynden Gooch reacts to Sunderland departure, Corry Evans injury latest, Michael Beale poll - round-up

Sunderland face Huddersfield Town away from home in the Championship on Wednesday evening, with the game live on Sky Sports.

Here, though, we take you through some of the key headlines you may have missed ahead of the game:

Lynden Gooch reacts to Sunderland news

Lynden Gooch has reacted to the news that Stephen Aziz will be leaving Sunderland after a 12-year stint at the Stadium of Light.

Aziz originally joined the club as an understudy to former player and kit man John Cooke before he was controversially made redundant by Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven.

Aziz features in the third episode of season three of the hit Netflix docu-series Sunderland Til I Die, which has now been released for the general public to view. However, Aziz has now revealed he will leave Sunderland.

After news of Aziz leaving Sunderland landed, Gooch added on LinkedIn: "It will be a sad day when this man leaves SAFC. The heart and soul of the dressing room during my long spell at the club and one of my best mates. Good luck for whatever is next my man and thanks for everything Stephen Aziz."

Interesting polling shift on head coach Michael Beale

In other news, Michael Beale's popularity among Sunderland fans has increased dramatically since January with a poll conducted by The Echo revealing some interesting results.

Just nine per cent of the 3,121 Sunderland fans polled said that they were still in favour of Beale leaving the club, a huge shift from the 91 per cent at the end of last month. 37.4 per cent of people were in favour of the former Rangers man remaining at the club, whilst 53.6 per cent stated that they were reserving judgement.

Corry Evans update provided ahead of season run-in

Michael Beale has admitted that Corry Evans' return to action remains a little way off but says even having the midfielder back around the group could be vital as the pressure rises in the play-off push.

Evans has not featured since suffering an ACL injury during the 2-0 win over Middlesbrough last January but took a major step in his comeback by returning to training with the U21 group this week.