Tony Mowbray on fresh Ross Stewart blow: 'I’ll speak to our head of recruitment now'

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray says he will ask the club to replace Ross Stewart immediately.

Michael Graham | Jan 28, 2023

Tony Mowbray on fresh Ross Stewart blow: 'I’ll speak to our head of recruitment now' /

Tony Mowbray says he will ask the Sunderland recruitment team to replace Ross Stewart immediately after confirming the extent of the Scotsman’s injury.

Stewart was stretchered off early in Sunderland’s 1-1 draw with Premier League side Fulham in the FA Cup, and he could now be out for months with an Achilles injury.

The Black Cats added Joe Gelhardt to their attacking ranks last week, but the plan there was for him to support Stewart, not replace him.

Now, Mowbray intends to ask for another January addition to replace their top scorer.

"It overshadows things for us, in terms of the longer picture for us as a club,” Mowbray said.

“Ross scored two goals in my first game and then got injured the next week. We lost him for a long period and yet he came back and scored in every single game for us.

“The positive for us is that we’ve signed Joe Gelhardt this week and I’ll go and speak to our head of recruitment now and see if we can keep in the market [for another striker].”

The full extent of the injury won’t be known until after a scan, but Mowbray admits it is looking like a very long absence for the striker.

“Ross has got a big, protective boot on – it’s an Achilles injury,” he said. “I’ve just speaking to the doctors there and because he’s not hopping about and screaming in pain, it could potentially be a complete tear which would be a long, long time.

"Beyond that I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, something has popped as he makes that run and we’re concerned about him, having lost Corry Evans earlier this week.”

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Published Jan 28, 2023

MICHAEL GRAHAM

Michael Graham is a professional sports writer with more than ten years of industry experience. After pursuing football writing by helping establish the Roker Report Sunderland AFC fansite, Michael moved to Planet Sport to cover football. Michael has since worked on many of the sports sites within the Planet Sport network, including Football365, TEAMtalk and Planet Football before leaving to join 90min. As well as football, Michael is an accomplished tennis writer and has been regularly featured on Tennishead, TennisBuzz and Tennis365. It is football that is his first love, though, with Sunderland AFC his particular passion. Contact: michael@buzzpublishing.co.uk