What Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray said about West Brom, Danny Batth injury, Edouard Michut and Dan Ballard

That brings us to the end of the broadcast section of the press conference - but Mowbray has also spoken to the written press including our reporter Phil Smith.

We’ll have more from the Black Cats boss, as well as build-up to Sunday’s match, over on the SAFC section of the Echo website.

“It’s a pretty common theme for us but we seem to have overcome most of the problems I think.

“You throw Danny Batth in with Aji Alese and Dan Ballard then all of a sudden you get the gravity of losing a proper central defender really, who I thought the other night was amazing.

“We gave away too many corners and free-kicks the other night, and yet it was his head making first contact, flicking it away, getting rid of the danger. He’s going to be a huge loss for us.

“I think playing against the team who are first or second from scoring from set-plays this season, West Brom, it’s a huge loss.

“As I’ve sat here from day one we have to find a way to do something different. We’ll choose a team and put a team out to go and try to find a way to give West Brom some problems and deal with their threats.”

“He won’t be involved at West Brom.

“I’ve spoken to him today and that’s not going to happen for this weekend, he might possibly have a few days of training before the next game but it’s a daily assessment, so we’ll have to see on that one.”

“Edouard had his first day of training back today which was good to see, and he trained well.

“I haven’t made my mind up on the team yet and I told them that today, we rotated a few different things as we have to. Joe Gelhardt didn’t train today because he’s been managing an ankle problem for a few weeks to be honest, but we’re hopeful that he’ll train tomorrow and play a part.

“We’ve had five or six of the U18s up to train with us today because you need the numbers to try and practice what you’re going to do in the game. We are utilising the youth teams a lot at this moment, which is a great experience for them. The U18s have got a massive game against Manchester City where they are going to try and win a league, and we’ll have a couple who play in that game and come across to then join us at the hotel.

“It feels as if it’s both ends of the pitch at the moment to be honest where we’ve got problems, but we’ve generally found a way to give a good account of ourselves this season and I’m sure we’ll do the same.”

“West Brom are a really good team.

“I watched a bit of the game back, the home game against them. I think we played really well for maybe an hour in that game and then they really showed how talented they were, they put us under real pressure late on and got themselves a winner.

“They have some very talented individuals. They took some of the best free transfers the league offered last year, Swift and Wallace.

“I think they are a really dangerous team, I managed West Brom and know the emotion and passion of the place when it’s going well.

“I was just reading they are postponing their campaign against the ownership in support of the team trying to push for the play-offs.

“I think it will be a really good game. I’m sure we will take an enormous number of people along to support us and I know that when that stadium is near full it’s an amazing place to play football.”

“I think you have to analyse every season really and think about what the objectives were.

“I think when I first came in my discussions were around making sure that we could consolidate in the league. If you look in that context I don’t think we’ve ever really been looking over our shoulder at the bottom half of the table, or bottom section.

“For me we want to win every game and nobody wins every game, but we want to be competitive and I think we’ve been competitive.

“Successful? We have had really good spells where we’ve won some consecutive games, and then we’ve had some difficult spells where we’ve probably had too many draws and defeats.

“Generally it’s gone ok. I think most supporters, without speaking to the supporters, would have taken three games to go still in with a chance of making the play-offs.”

Sunderland have just had no luck with injuries this season.

The club have confirmed Danny Batth is set to miss the rest of the campaign with a knee injury he sustained during Tuesday’s draw against Huddersfield.

The 32-year-old is expected to return for the club’s pre-season preparations in June.

Sunderland sit ninth in the Championship table and are two points off the play-off places following Wednesday’s second-tier results.

Sunderland will still be without several first-team players for the rest of this season.

Centre-back Danny Batth was also forced off in the closing stages against Huddersfield, yet the extent of the injury wasn’t clear immediately after the game.

“I don’t know how bad he is,” said Mowbray in his post-match press conference.

“I had a ten or 15-minute chat with the lads in the dressing room after the game, and Danny was sitting there with a bit of ice. I don’t know how bad it is.”

There are also doubts over Edouard Michut for the West Brom game, after the midfielder missed the Huddersfield fixture with a minor back issue.

Dan Ballard has been sidelined with a hamstring issue in recent weeks and is expected to miss this weekend’s trip to West Brom.

Long-term absentees Ross Stewart, Aji Alese, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton and Jewison Bennette all remain sidelined.

We’ll get a further update from Mowbray when he speaks to the media this afternoon.