Sunderland have suffered an injury 'disaster' at Huddersfield, confirms Michael Beale

Michael Beale has explained how a bad night for Sunderland at Huddersfield has got even worse.

Sunderland have suffered an injury ‘disaster’ in the defeat to Huddersfield, with Patrick Roberts likely facing a month on the sidelines.

Roberts only entered the contest on the hour, coming on for Abdoullah Ba in the demoralising 1-0 loss at the John Smith’s Stadium.

However, he limped out of it again in the dying minutes, and Beale does not think it looks very promising.

Michael Beale lays blame for Huddersfield defeat on 'the number nine position'

“We’ve obviously had a disaster because we’ve lost Paddy for the last ten minutes and that meant we had to play with ten men," Beale said.

"It just made it into an even worse night. It’s his hamstring, and I’m told it looks as if its the same as he did earlier in the season. He missed four or five weeks earlier in the season, and he feels it’s the same.

“It’s a really big shame because I thought he was bright when he came on. He came inside and the defender did fantastic to block it, and then he went outside on another one. We looked much stronger when he came on, so he’ll be a big loss.

It is the second time that Patrick Roberts have left the pitch early with an injury since Beale took over.

He says now it will fall on other players to fill the void.

“What’s he played for me? Two-and-a-half games now? And probably, that’s going to be it for a period of time now, so someone has to step up, for sure.”

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