Sunderland ready to welcome back key defender for Swansea clash

The (most recent) Sunderland injury crisis is just starting to ease a little.

Sunderland should be able to welcome Danny Batth back into the squad for the visit of Swansea.

The central defender has been a key player for the Black Cats this season, but a calf injury suffered at Hull forced him to miss the last four matches.

Fortunately, that absence coincided with the return to fitness of Dan Ballard, although it also meant Sunderland have been unable to reunite what many believe to be their strongest central defensive partnership.

There is a good chance that may happen this weekend, though, especially with the continued absences of Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin and Niall Huggins likely to again force Luke O’Nien into left-back duty.

“Danny Batth trained today which is good,” Tony Mowbray said ahead of the Swansea game. "Niall Huggins had his first day back on the grass today which was good. 

"He's been out for a while so he won't be in contention for this week but it's good that he's on his way back. Corry Evans has been training and is available.

"Aji Alese is probably about ten days away, he's back on the grass doing a little bit of running. Dennis Cirkin is probably about a week behind Aji.

"Leon is back on the training ground, the injury wasn't as bad as he thought so he's back in the squad and we'll see what the weekend brings."

Although Batth is a key player, Sunderland have remained unbeaten in his absence. They drew at Hull after he went off and beat Blackburn and Wigan before a New Year’s Day stalemate with Blackpool.

They backed that up with a 2-1 win over Shrewsbury in the FA Cup, although they did need two injury-time goals to do it. 

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