Huggins is building up his body but not likely to play
NIALL Huggins is not expected to play a part in Sunderland’s run-in despite the Black Cats’ defensive injury woes, but remains on target to join in with the club’s pre-season.
The full-back has barely featured since joining the club in the summer of 2021, with a series of injuries keeping him out between September of that year and November of 2022.
He returned and played 90 minutes against Birmingham City, but further injuries have restricted him to just a 45-minute outing as a substitute in the FA Cup at Fulham since. Huggins is back in training but is dividing his time between working with the first team, the U21s, and the U18s and he works to get back up to speed and, as boss Tony Mowbray put it, ‘build up confidence in his body.’
And Mowbray is not holding out any hope that the 22-year-old will be involved in the final three games of the season, instead looking ahead to Huggins returning for pre-season ready to work with the first team.
“I don’t think so,” said Mowbray, when asked if there is a chance of Huggins playing in the final three games.
“He didn’t train with us yesterday, he trained with the U18s. He’s on his journey back.
“He has days where he trains with us – some days he is happy to train with the first team because he knows what the session is and what we are doing, and other days when it is more intense like yesterday he will go back down and train with the young teams. He’s just trying build up his confidence in his body.
“Niall is on the grass now, it’s just a case of feeling the intensity of the first-team sessions. By pre-season, hopefully he will have got his body in a position where he feels strong and ready to go.
“We all really like Niall as a football player, he just has to build his body with some resistance and resilience to the demands of modern-day football. Hopefully he will have a good summer and good preparation, and he’ll be able to join in with pre-season.”
Sunderland are struggling for numbers in defence, with Danny Batth picking up a knee injury in the midweek draw against Huddersfield Town.