Cats boss sweating on Grabban injury blow

Sunderland’s problems continue to mount after top scorer Lewis Grabban was taken off with a hamstring injury in last night’s last-gasp defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Grabban was replaced in the 37th minute after tweaking his hamstring while attempting to shoot at goal.

Boss Simon Grayson is sweating on the results of tests to see how severe the hamstring injury is, with Sunderland chronically shy of attacking options.

Sunderland failed to land another striker on deadline day and the free agent market remains an option in between transfer windows.

Grayson said: “It looks like Lewis tweaked his hamstring. We will see the severity of it this morning. Of course it would be a blow because he is a good player, we are a little bit short in those numbers.

“I thought the team that was out there was doing ever so well.”

When pressed on whether Sunderland would dip into the free agent market, Grayson added: “We will see where we go. We have Aiden McGeady to come back, Duncan Watmore coming back, we still have options. We will see where it is going and what is out there.”

McGeady and Lamine Kone both missed the defeat.

Grayson added: “Both Lamine and Aiden set off training yesterday but both as a precaution both pulled out. Both are not a million miles away. Lets be hopeful.”

Daryl Murphy scored the winning goal in the 86th minute after Forest capitalised on a dreadful mistake by Everton loanee Tyias Browning who misplaced a pass.

Grayson said: “It was avoidable. Tyias should have played forward but we get punished. Members of their staff were saying it was a travesty of a result.”