Mel Reay confirms major injury setback in Sunderland team news update

Sunderland boss Mel Reay says Mullen is determined to come back stronger: "Faye went for a scan immediately after the initial injury but with it being a bit swollen we weren't sure [of the prognosis]. She spoke to the consultant last night who advised her that surgery would be required.

"It's really bad news but Faye is in a positive frame of mind and determined to come back even stronger."

Mullen's Sunderland team-mates Abby Towers and Emily Hutchinson are currently in rehabilitation from similar injuries. Mullen is not expected to play again this season.

The Black Cats will also be without captain Keira Ramshaw when they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday (12pm KO) due to an ankle injury, though the club are confident that she will be back in action in the near future.

Though Sunderland are yet to secure their first win of the Championship campaign there have been positives to build on for Reay and her side.

The narrow 1-0 defeat to Liverpool last time out represented a spirited effort against WSL opposition, while the previous week a stoppage time winner for Charlton Athletic came at the end of a game in which the hosts had played some excellent attacking football.

Sunderland faced Celtic in a friendly over the international break in order to maintain match sharpness.

Crystal Palace will provide stern opposition, currently sitting third in the table after investing significantly in their playing squad over the summer.

Reay says her team have shown they can compete and will travel to the capital confident that they can get a result.

"We've been relatively pleased with the performances over the last few games, Charlton in particular and then Liverpool," Reay said.

"There were good signs against Charlton, the main area of our game we've wanted to get better has been going forward. I think we've shown we can be defensively resilient and that we can be difficult to beat, but in transition we want to be better on the ball, we want to be higher up the pitch and scoring more goals. It's about getting that balance right.

"We've shown that we can compete. We're in games, it's just the fine margins that we need to be better at to get over the line. "We've worked really hard over the international break, we played a friendly against Celtic just to keep and try and keep that momentum going and keep that match sharpness up.

"There's no easy games. Crystal Palace have recruited well over the summer, transitioned to full time and had some good results. "But Southampton took all three points off them so as I say every week, in this league it's about who turns up on the day, having the right mindset and attitude and delivering the game plan."

Crystal Palace lost 4-0 to Bristol City in their opening Continental Cup fixture last time out, but their last Championship fixture was an impressive 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers away from home.