Tony Mowbray reveals Sunderland have suffered further injury blow ahead of crucial Huddersfield Town clash

Tony Mowbray was already without Dennis Cirkin, who was shown a red card in the latter stages of the crucial 2-1 win over Birmingham City on Saturday.

That will likely lead to Luke O’Nien returning to the starting XI, but the Black Cats head coach is managing a further absence as he looks to keep the club’s top-six hopes alive.

Mowbray is hopeful that it will only be a one-game absence, and is keeping the identity of the player under wraps for now.

Mowbray said: “We’ve picked up another injury from the weekend, but I don’t really want to say who it is at this stage. I know Neil sometimes likes to get his men to mark certain men so I don’t want to give it away.

"We’re one more down from what we were at the weekend, but I’m hopeful it’s not a bad one and it might just be for this game, fingers crossed for that.

"We’re in good spirits after back-to-back wins, it’s always difficult to win three on the bounce in the Championship and Huddersfield have had some amazing wins lately, but it’s a good opportunity for us.

"We’ve got to challenge ourselves against the next opposition, and hopefully we can find a way to win.”

The injury could hand an opportunity to another academy youngster to take their place in the matchday squad, though Chris Rigg is out for the rest of the campaign with an injury.