Sunderland boss dispels fears of Dennis Cirkin injury setback

Defender was expected to return to the Sunderland squad this week but was deemed 'not quite ready.'

Dennis Cirkin was left out of the matchday squad for the visit of Blackpool due to an abundance of caution, but he will ‘probably’ be involved against Swansea this weekend.

Cirkin has been out with a hamstring injury since the Middlesbrough game last month, although Tony Mowbray said he would be on the bench for the Blackpool match.

His name never actually materialised on the teamsheet, but the Sunderland boss dispelled any fears of a setback.

Asked about why Cirkin was absent despite him saying he expected the defender to feature, Mowbray said: "Dennis wasn't quite right.

"I had a long chat with Dennis on Monday and I think he wasn't quite 100 percent clear in his mind that his hamstring was ready. He wouldn't have started the game anyway.

"He's just about there, but we made a decision not to gamble because the back four wasn't going to change because it is performing at a high level. He did a hard training session on Monday.”

Before the injury, most would have identified Dennis Cirkin as a key player in the Sunderland side after some remarkable development since arriving at the club a year ago.

However, the form of Aji Alese has created some genuine competition for that spot in the team and allowed Mowbray the luxury of caution.

"When you train, you can control the sprints and how hard you push yourself - in a game you have to sprint when you have to sprint and you have to make slide tackles and stretch yourself,” he explained.

“He's pushing himself really hard and there's another game in a few days so he will probably be in contention for it so he'll probably be coming to Swansea with us."

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