Sunderland suffer fresh injury blow with Dennis Cirkin set to be missing for 'a while'

Sunderland defender Dennis Cirkin has suffered a fresh injury setback, with him requiring fresh scans on a hamstring problem.

Cirkin has endured a frustrating season on the injury front, but things were looking positive again when Beale reported he was on the brink of a return last week.

He had been there before, though, and was actually named on the teamsheet on November against Birmingham, only to be forced to withdraw after a problem in the warm-up.

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Now it seems Sunderland will have to have a rethink on how they are treating the former Spurs man, and midfielder Bradley Dack is going to me missing a while as well.

“Bradley and Dennis aren't going to be available, we're going to be missing them for a while,” Beale said ahead of the game against Newcastle.

“Bradley has a hamstring injury that will be around four weeks at best, but that's probably the best possible diagnosis that we could have got.

“Dennis didn't feel quite right when he came back to training and so we're going to go through the process of getting the scans, and then we'll give feedback when we can.”

One man who is available again though is Jay Matete, which will come as a boost to a Sunderland squad lacking in central midfield numbers.

Matete picked up an injury on Sunderland’s pre-season tour of the USA, but he is back with the squad now and can be called upon if needed.

“Jay is training and has been for a while,” said Beale. “He got 45 minutes in an Under-21s game, but he just hasn't been selected for the last couple of games. So, he's available for selection.”

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