Grabban likely out for month

LEWIS Grabban is set for at least a month on the sidelines with the hamstring problem he suffered against Nottingham Forest, Simon Grayson has confirmed.

The on-loan Bournemouth striker has undergone a scan on the injury but Sunderland are still awaiting the results, which will allow the club’s medical staff to put a more accurate timescale on his return.

But boss Grayson has ruled Grabban out of tomorrow’s trip to Hull City and says the injury is likely to sideline the frontman for “a few weeks”.

If that prognosis proves correct, it would mean Grabban will not play again in September, missing out on the midweek Carabao Cup trip to Everton followed by the Championship games against Cardiff City, Ipswich Town, and Preston.

The Preston game is followed by a fortnight’s international break, meaning the earliest he could be back in action would be the home game against QPR on October 14.

He’s had a scan on his hamstring and, with these injuries, it is not going to be a few days, it is going to be a few weeks,” said Grayson.

“It’s not ideal because it is an area of the pitch where we are short of numbers at this moment in time, but you have to deal with these situations and players who come into the team have to come to the fore.

“Hopefully in the next week or 10 days we will have more attacking players coming back into the team.”

One of those is winger Aiden McGeady, who has missed the last two games with a hamstring problem picked up on international duty with the Republic of Ireland. He, along with groin injury victim Lamine Kone, trained with the first team today and Grayson will assess their fitness later today.

Grayson is still open to signing an out-of-contract striker to bolster his squad – but only if he can find the right player.

He said: “You’ve got to be careful because the ones out there have probably not trained for a while. So it could take four to six weeks to get them there and before you know it you’ve got McGeady, Duncan Watmore, Grabban and Josh Maja back.

“We might just have to ride out this difficult period. But I won’t dismiss it.”