Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray gives triple injury update ahead of Blackburn return

Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray has been speaking to the media ahead of his side's clash with Blackburn on Wednesday. Credit: PA

Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray has confirmed that Bradley Dack, Dennis Cirkin and Pierre Ekwah will all miss Wednesday's clash with Blackburn through injury.

Both Dack and Cirkin missed Saturday's 3-1 win over Queens Park Rangers with their issues with hamstring issues while Ekwah lasted just 14 minutes before he was replaced after suffering a dead leg.

Now the trio could miss the next few games as they complete their recoveries as the injury issues start to mount up for Mowbray.

"Dennis obviously is going to be a few weeks," Mowbray explained in his pre-match press conference. "He could potentially be after the next international break but I honestly don't know for sure, we'll wait and see.

"Pierre has a dead leg and he got a bang in exactly the same place five minutes into the QPR game. It's quite swollen and these things tend to filter down the leg. He's got some swelling, so he probably needs ten days to let it all settle down.

"Bradley Dack has tweaked his hamstring. We need to give him some time to get it right. It's not a major concern for everybody, but we've made the call to take him out of the situation for two or three weeks and let him fully recover."

Pierre Ekwah and Dennis Cirkin will miss Wednesday's clash against Blackburn. Credit: PA

Mowbray will also still be unable to call on the services of deadline day arrival Nazariy Rusyn with issues surrounding the Ukrainian's visa ongoing.

The 59-year-old hopes to have him available soon but admits the wait is frustrating as he tries to get him up to speed with the rest of the squad.

“Rusyn still hasn’t got his visa so he is not going to travel for this one but we will get to that point”, Mowbray explained. “There was every expectation that it was going to be here this morning but we went out to training, came back in and it is still not here.

“It is a little bit frustrating for him but he is happy to do some training. He needs to get up to speed as he hasn’t played a game for three or four weeks.”

Kick-off at Ewood Park is at 7:45pm on Wednesday as Mowbray returns to face his former club.

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