Mike Dodds gives Jack Clarke injury update and confirms latest Sunderland team news

Mike Dodds has confirmed that Jack Clarke will miss Swansea City's visit to the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon but remains hopeful that the winger could play a part in the fixtures that follow.

Clarke suffered an ankle injury during the 2-1 defeat to Birmingham City last week and has been unable to train this week, meaning tomorrow's game will come too soon. The winger remains a doubt for the game against Norwich City a week later but Dodds says it is far too soon to rule him out of that game or the ones that follow.

Dodds also confirmed that Leo Hjelde is fully fit, despite claims on social media that he had suffered an injury. The interim head coach also confirmed that Callum Styles will be included in the squad for the first time.

"The Jack Clarke one is an interesting one," Dodds said.

"I’m not a big social media person and am only getting things second and third hand. The information I get from social media is a lot worse than what it is.

"Jack rolled his ankle against Birmingham, obviously played 90 minutes and was super relaxed. The plan was for him to have a couple of days off and train Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That hasn’t happened so I think the game tomorrow is probably going to come too early for him, then we’ll assess where we are on Monday. I don’t think he will be out for a month, I think that has been a little bit more sensationalised than it is.

"Callum has trained fully for the last two weeks and will be in the squad for tomorrow," Dodds added.

Sunderland have no other new injury concerns, but Dodds says the squad's longer-term absentees are making progress in their comebacks.

"Pat [Roberts] is still a few weeks away, he’s not back out on the grass yet," Dodds said.

"Corry trained with us this morning. He’s been doing bits with the Under-21s, although when I say he trained with us, I don’t want people to get carried away with that. It was very much bit-part training, but it’s still welcome news to see someone of Corry’s calibre in the dressing room out on the training pitch. Aji and Dacky were out as well. They part-trained, doing a bit with the sports science department and a bit with us. There is some brighter news in terms of people returning."

With Dan Ballard out suspended, Jenson Seelt is set to return to the side in his favoured centre back position.

"I thought Jenson was excellent in the Leeds performance in particular. I made a call to change the way we set-up (at Bristol City), which meant Jenson came out of the team," Dodds said.

"He knows the reasons behind that and was more than comfortable with it. I think Jenson more than deserves the opportunity to have a few games and a little bit of a run in the team to show us where he’s at. He’s trained very well, and he knows my thoughts on him. Hopefully, in the next couple of games, he can show everyone how good he is.”