Sunderland handed double injury boost ahead of Scunthorpe United clash

Lee Burge has returned to the fold for Sunderland

Sunderland have no fresh injury concerns ahead of their trip to Scunthorpe United in the Leasing.com Trophy – and could welcome back two key players.

Denver Hume and Lee Burge both trained on Monday having missed the draw with Gillingham at the weekend.

Hume was sidelined with a virus while Burge, who took a place on the bench against the Gills, suffered a thigh strain during the defeat at Shrewsbury Town last month.

But both could return for the trip to Glanford Park, with assistant manager Steve Parkin confirming the Black Cats are only dealing with minor issues ahead of their final group stage outing.

“Burgey is back and feeling okay,” said Parkin.

“Denver is feeling okay and trained this morning, and there are no real injury concerns from the weekend.

“There’s a couple of slight knocks, but nothing serious.”

And Parkin insists that Sunderland will be taking the tie seriously as they look to seal qualification to the knockout stages of the much-debated competition.

“It’s two-fold, really,” he admitted.

“The further you can go in the competition the better it becomes because it’s got a great carrot at the end of it in playing at Wembley – as we’ve seen.

“The important thing for us is that we get a performance tomorrow night that last for 90 minutes. That’s what we’re looking for.

“If we get a performance for 90 minutes then we’ve got a great opportunity to win the game and progress.”