Sunderland boss reveals 'emotional' dressing room after heartbreaking injury set-back against Liverpool U21s

Sunderland under-21 lead coach Graeme Murty provided an update on Jake Waters after the game against Liverpool in the Premier League 2 on Monday night.

The striker has only just returned from an 18-month injury lay-off and played his first football of any sort during the summer’s pre-season campaign against Hebburn Town last month.

The 18-year-old boyhood Sunderland fan was then brought on towards the end of the 2-3 loss against Liverpool in the league. With the clash edging towards a close, however, Waters crashed to the ground holding his knee and left the pitch visibly upset.

Murty revealed that Sunderland’s staff and players were emotional after Waters’ injury but also admitted that it was simply too early to tell the extent of the problem just yet.

“It would be too early to make a prognosis on it and it would be disrespectful to Jake,” Murty told The Echo after the game. “So obviously it didn't look very good, but we're fingers crossed that it's nothing too serious. However, whatever comes, he'll have the best possible support that we can give him.

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“It is an emotional moment. So there's some emotional staff over there, some emotional players over there. But once again, as I said to Jake, we can't go borrowing trouble. We can't go and surmise anything that's happened. We have to wait for the medics to do their job and we'll just make sure that we're there for Jake as and when he needs us,” he concluded.