Sunderland's defensive crisis major headache for Tony Mowbray

The Sunderland injury list could not get much worse with a lot of key players out injured including Ross Stewart and Batth’s centre-back partner Dan Ballard.

It is not yet confirmed whether the former Wolves man will be out but considering the way he pulled up on Tuesday and that he had to be substituted, the odds are stacked against him ahead of the West Bromwich Albion trip on Sunday lunchtime.

In terms of natural centre-backs, Sunderland are only left with Joe Anderson in terms of specialist centre-backs but have plenty of options who can play there if required.

Anderson replaced Batth on Tuesday at the Stadium of Light against Huddersfield Town, however, he has only played 16 minutes of senior football so Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray may need to throw the 22-year-old in for such a big game.

Luke O’Nien has played the majority of the season at the centre of defence this season with 23 of his 31 appearances being there.

The likelihood is O’Nien will play at centre-back, the real question is who will play alongside him and in what system. In the recent 1-0 win over Cardiff, Mowbray found himself in a similar position with Batth being his only senior option at the back.

To counteract this Mowbray opted to play full-backs Dennis Cirkin and Trai Hume in a more narrow role, compared to the natural role of a full-back, either side of Batth. This is something he could look to do on Sunday with O’Nien, who missed the trip to Wales, coming in to replace Batth.

Playing this system would likely see Lynden Gooch return to a more natural right-back/wing-back role instead of playing on the left side.

However, a problem with it is that it would probably hamper the Black Cats attacking output as they’d either have to go with a more defensive-minded midfield or have Jack Clarke play a slightly deeper left-wing back role, which is something he has done in parts this season.