Latest Sunderland injury news ahead of trip to Stoke City with key players set to return

Sunderland will spend the international break preparing for their trip to Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium as they look to put their heavy home defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough behind them. The Black Cats are expecting to have a few of their injured players available by the time they face the Potters, with Pierre Ekwah, Bradley Dack, and Alex Pritchard nearing fitness.

They also have a couple more player nearing fitness, with Aji Alese and Eliezer Mayenda set to be eased back into first-team action. But they also picked up a fresh injury against Boro when defender Niall Huggins limped out of the action in the first half, while skipper Corry Evans and fellow midfielder Jay Matete are out long-term, and it will be a while before they resume playing.

Mowbray gives an injury update before every game and here ChronicleLive has pulled together the latest information we have on the situations of the players who are currently in the treatment room at the Academy of Light.

The former Manchester United manager would cost a potential new club up to £4 million to leave Portman Road, according to Alan Nixon.

Leicester City will be “one of the best teams in the Championship for a long time”, Stoke manager Alex Neil said after his team’s defeat at King Power Stadium

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City made it 10 from 11 and six in a row in the league as they beat the Potters 2-0, with Kelechi Iheanacho scoring in the first half and Jamie Vardy netting in the second. Vardy is one of four England internationals in the squad alongside Conor Coady, James Justin and Harry Winks, something Neil says is unprecedented in the Championship.

The Scot is confident in the quality of Man City’s squad and their ability to perform when teams face them, meaning they will be one of the best teams to win the title in the next few years. This was despite Neil feeling like his injury-hit side initially performed well against Enzo Maresca’s side.

“I thought our set-up was good,” the Stoke boss said. “I don’t think they have a chance until they score. The loss was really disappointing in our opinion. Iheanacho is very wide, just goes down the line of the ball. “If we go into halftime and the score is 0-0… Our intention is always at the end of the game to take advantage of the opportunity. You can understand why, when we try, why don’t you come here and play against Leicester. They have very good players. As soon as we closed the door, we could hear the coach say:
“They have changed.”

A stellar season for the side from Kenilworth Road saw them earn a brilliant promotion, and they became a Premier League club for the very first time.

Interest, then, was in who they would be looking to sign to try and boost their chances of staying in the division for longer than one year, and a number of leading Championship players have been brought in as part of that recruitment drive.

As part of that, Brown was signed from Stoke City, and here we’re looking at how he has been doing since making the switch to the Hatters…

Life in the Premier League was always going to prove tough for Luton and that has obviously been the case, with them towards the bottom end of the table – though they did earn a good win over Everton not so long ago.

That said, goals have been hard to come by for Brown so far this year, with him yet to register a strike in the Premier League, but he is clearly a part of what manager Rob Edwards is looking to do this season, and he has also won praise for his performances despite the lack of goals.

As per Whoscored, he’s started five games and appeared in a further three off of the bench, so he has been very much involved this season so far in the top flight, whilst he does already have a couple of goals elsewhere with him scoring for Stoke in the Championship before leaving and also once for Luton in the League Cup.

Perhaps not the exact goal return that Brown would have wanted so far this year, then, but his new manager is very pleased with what he has seen from the attacker.

Quoted recently by Luton Today, Edwards predicted that the goals will soon ‘flow’ for the former Potters man:

“I’m delighted for him about his Scotland call up, it’s thoroughly deserved.

“He’s had some really good opportunities to score some goals and if he continues getting in the right areas he will do as well, but the work-rate, the shift he puts in for the team is incredible, it’s brilliant.

“He works so, so hard, he’s a massive team player.

“He gets chances, he’s hit the woodwork, had one cleared off the line, had a couple other headers and half chances as well, it’s coming, it’s coming.

“He’s been a goal threat for us and if he continues to arrive in the areas that he has been, there’s no doubt the goals will be coming in the Premier League for him as well.

“But what he contributes, away from that, and our supporters will see that, he does not stop running, he’s been brilliant since he’s come in.”

Clearly, much of the work that Brown has done this year has been good, and Scotland are also recognising that with him getting a call-up to the Tartan Army’s international squad for the upcoming matches later this month.

He just needs to keep working hard and doing the right things, and eventually he’ll surely start hitting the back of the net in the top flight in England.