Watmore left frustrated on the sidelines
Injured Duncan Watmore has spoken of his frustration at having to watch on from the stands as his Sunderland team-mates scrap for Premier League survival.
The livewire forward was ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering cruciate knee ligament damage in the 2-1 win over Leicester City back in December.
Watmore’s long-term injury is one of several blows this campaign, with Victor Anichebe, Lee Cattermole and Jan Kirchhoff among those to have spent a lengthy spell inside the treatment room over the course of the campaign.
Sunderland are bottom and seven points adrift of safety ahead of the trip to Watford tomorrow.
England Under-21 international Watmore says the injuries cannot be used as an excuse for this season’s struggles and says the determination to stay up is burning as strong as ever in the Sunderland squad.
The 23-year-old is on the long road to recovery alongside midfielder Paddy McNair, with the pair helping keep each other’s spirits up at the Academy of Light training base.
Watmore said: “It hasn’t helped our position in the league obviously with the injuries we’ve had, but, as far as the team is concerned, they’re just as focused as ever.
“You can’t use injuries as excuses and me and Paddy obviously feel very frustrated we can’t go out and help but you’ve got to just try, as an injured person, to do everything you can behind the scenes to keep morale up, keep working hard and make sure we can support the lads in whatever way we can.”
Watmore had been a regular under Moyes this season and had linked up well with Anichebe and Jermain Defoe during the club’s run of four wins in seven games back in November and December before injury struck.
Watmore and McNair are both expected to be back for pre-season training.
It has been an eventful few months for Watmore after it emerged yesterday that the winger helped save the lives of three elderly passengers in a Barbados boat accident during a break last month.
Watmore and girlfriend Sophie were thrown overboard when a catamaran ploughed into the speedboat they were on during a fishing trip.
But he managed to get the three clear of the water before the coastguard arrived, climbing on to the catamaran to help pull up the other tourists and using his T-shirt to stem the bleeding from one victim’s leg.
Liverpool are not commenting on claims they could face a transfer ban on academy players if they are found guilty of ‘tapping up’ a Stoke youngster.
The case, which involves allegations of a forbidden inducement offered to a 12-year-old, has been ongoing for some time but details only emerged last week.
Reports suggest matters are coming to a head and that the most severe sanction could be a transfer ban on youth players, but Liverpool have maintained their stance of not commenting until the process is complete.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Liverpool have also been accused of reneging on an agreement to pay the unnamed youngster’s school fees – which Stoke were doing – until he turned 16, after they realised that breached newly-introduced rules on inducements and refused to honour the commitment.
If found guilty, possible punishments range from a fine to a transfer ban, although the Premier League also refused to comment on the case.