Breen to miss "up to six games"

Sunderland AFC have confirmed that Gary Breen could miss as many as the next six matches after suffering a groin strain in Tuesday's away defeat to Stoke City.

Breen was replaced by Joachim Bjorklund and Mick McCarthy said afterwards that with hindsight, he believes he should have replaced the Irishman sooner: "Gary suffered a bit of a groin strain and, while I have criticised the players for being bullied a bit, perhaps we should have taken him off and got Jocky Bjorklund on earlier."

The Lads must be keeping the physio busy at the moment, with Jason McAteer, Matt Piper (knee ligament), Phil Babb (groin), Darren Williams (ankle) and Stephen Wright (calf) all currently missing from first team action. Piper and McAteer are expected to take longest to recover from their respective injuries, and are both looking at spending around six weeks on the sidelines.

But the outlook isn't so grim as it might look with Darren Williams back in training and Stephen Wright hoping to be fit for this weekend's trip to Pride Park.

The Lads could potentially play as many as eleven first team matches in the next six weeks, depending upon their progress in the league cup - and the fact that Sean Thornton will miss the home match against Ipswich on Tuesday 30th September won't help matters. Stand-in skipper Paul Thirlwell will also have to be on his best behaviour as he's already on his fourth yellow card of the season so far; his next will see him face a one-match ban at a time when Sunderland can ill afford to have any first-team players missing.