Sunderland could be without ‘key player’ Alex Pritchard for Saturday’s Wear-Tees derby with Middlesbrough, with the attacking midfielder missing Wednesday night’s win over Watford.
Ahead of that game, which Sunderland won 2-0, Tony Mowbray had revealed that one of his ‘key players’ would miss the Watford game and would ‘likely’ miss out against Boro too. He didn’t name Pritchard at the time, but it was the 30-year-old who was missing when Sunderland’s team was announced for the game.
The Wearsiders coped without Pritchard as goals from Niall Huggins and Abdoullah Ba fired the goals that kept them fourth in the Championship. While Pritchard isn’t always a regular starter for Sunderland, he is an important player for Mowbray given his experience in an otherwise young squad.
Speaking after the game, the former Boro captain said: “He’s probably unlikely to play at the weekend – he’s got a slight calf strain. Calf strains are really delicate things. If you gamble, then you can end up with a tear rather than a niggle. It will be touch and go whether he can make it, and I’ll sit and have a chat with Alex and see how he feels.
“The scan showed very minimal damage, but it did show damage so collectively we felt it was better he left it [last night] and there is an international break coming up, but we haven’t nailed down Saturday yet – we’ll wait and see how he is and if he trains over the next few days.”
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