Cats to check on Stewart injury ahead of cup clash
Sunderland will monitor a knock Ross Stewart picked up in the latter stages of the 2-2 draw with Fleetwood Town.
Stewart looks likely to be rested for Tuesday night's Carabao Cup third round clash at WiganAthletic,withLeeJohnsonponderingfurtherchanges to his XI.
TheScottishstrikerlooked uncomfortable through the closing stages of Saturday's game, with Johnson noting that the incident in question saw more contact with a defender than the one which saw Fleetwood awarded a late penalty.
“Rossjustrolledhisanklein the box," Johnson said.
"Ifyoulookatthatone,that’s more contact than the one the referee's ended up giving against Bailey. The precedent he’s set is just ridiculous."
Johnson is keen to quickly get Sunderland back to winning ways at the DW Stadium, but is conscious that he has a number of players in need of minutes to maintain their match sharpness. Leon Dajaku is in contention to make his debut. “I try not to pick a team too closely after a game because emotions are raw," Johnson said.
"Youwanttotrytoconsider it, and you have to see how everybody is. Ross has picked up that knock, but Flanno is obviously back in contention. It’s a game we think we can mix up a little bit to get the balance of minutes for players but also go and try to get into the next round.”
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Sunderland have opened contract talks with Elliot Embleton. Sunderland have the option of extending Embleton’s deal by a further year at the end of this season. However,reportsstatethatthe CatswouldprefertotieEmbleton down to a long-term deal.