Sunderland to be without defender for 'a few weeks,' says Tony Mowbray

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray will have to do without Dennis Cirkin at Plymouth after the extent of his injury was confirmed.

Sunderland defender Dennis Cirkin will be out ‘for a few weeks’ but Tony Mowbray says he has no long-term concerns over the full-back.

Cirkin has played just 505 minutes this season due to a succession of niggling injuries. He was supposed to start the last game before the international break against Birmingham but picked up a hamstring injury in the warm-up.

Scans have revealed that there is no ‘major injury’ there, although Mowbray has confirmed that Cirkin will miss the next few games at least.

"Dennis isn't fit, he hasn't been training this week," Mowbray said ahead of the trip to Plymouth.

"I'm not too sure how long Dennis will be out for at this stage, other than I know he isn't ready to train with us yet and he hasn't been training with us. I don't think it's any major injury, probably a few weeks [out] with a muscle injury.

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"There's no concerns, he'll be fine and back with us in a few weeks. In the meantime, we'll have to find other solutions."

The good news for Mowbray is that he will not be short on options in defence at Home Park.

Cirkin’s injury last week came on top of suspensions to both Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien, meaning both Jenson Seelt and Nectarios Triantis had to come in and make their full league debuts together.

Ballard picked up an injury on international duty with Northern Ireland, but he has trained for Sunderland and is expected to be fit, and both he and O’Nien are expected to come straight back into the side.

"Dan Ballard trained with us today, so we'll just to have manage that,” Mowbray explained.

“We'll see if there's any reaction tomorrow and whether he can come with us. Trai Hume thankfully came through his games fine and Luke O'Nien, his suspension is over so he'll just keep rolling on.”

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