AS SENSATIONAL midfielder IS SET TO START WHEN THE HEAD TO bet365 Stadium, INJURY BOOST

Tony Mowbray will delay until tomorrow a final decision on his team to face Stoke City with several first-teamers still needing to prove their fitness. The Black Cats will resume their Championship campaign after the international break when they head to the bet365 Stadium on Saturday to face the Potters.

Sunderland will be without midfielder Dan Neil, who must serve a one-game suspension after picking up a red card in the defeat against Middlesbrough a fortnight ago, leaving Mowbray with a gap to fill. Before the international break, he was hoping that midfielders Pierre Ekwah, Bradley Dack, and Alex Pritchard would be back in contention for Stoke and that may well still be the case, but he will wait until after training tomorrow before making a decision.

“Training today and tomorrow will be key, if they aren’t fully training by tomorrow they won’t be playing and they understand that,” said Mowbray. “There’s training with the physios and there’s training fully with the team.

Sunderland are also still waiting on some of their international players to return to Wearside and that presents a further headache for Mowbray. He said: “We have to prepare the team.

“The sad thing for me is that we haven’t even had some of the players back yet from international duty, they won’t be back until tomorrow and in my mind, they won’t be able to start. “How can you prepare your team when you can’t train with them?