Head coach frustrated by fitness woes as trio struggle with injury

Lee Johnson expects Lynden Gooch to miss tomorrow night’s visit of Cheltenham Town with a foot injury.

Attacking midfielder Gooch was absent from the matchday squad as Sunderland beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 at the Stadium of Light, maintaining their position in the automatic promotion places.

But Sunderland head coach Johnson said he is hopeful the 25-year-old USA international has not suffered a serious problem and expects him to be available in the not too distant future – hopefully for Saturday’s long trip to League One rivals Portsmouth.

“I don't think it's that serious,” he said.

“He picked up a knock in training before the Fleetwood game on the top of the foot.

“More than likely that's been deferred to the bottom of the foot.

“It's just started to cause him a bit of a problem.

“I would expect him to be out for Tuesday night, and then potentially to be back for Saturday, or then Lincoln in the Papa John’s Trophy on the Tuesday.”

Johnson is likely at this stage to have to reshuffle his defence for the visit of Michael Duff ’s side, after the

Black Cats picked up two concerns in the narrow win on Saturday.

Dennis Cirkin was replaced by Niall Huggins after suffering a suspected concussion, following an aerial challenge with Bolton winger Lloyd Isgrove.

Cirkin had impressed again, producing an assist for Carl Winchester’s winning goal, but will need to be assessed in the coming days.

Callum Doyle also excelled as Sunderland produced a vital clean sheet, but is currently being troubled by a minor back injury, which will have to be monitored by Johnson and his staff.

“Dennis was outstanding and you can see now why we signed him,” Johnson said.

“We're still chasing fitness with a few and you can see that in games.

“It’s a bit frustrating and probably the reason we’as a re not able to quite win games by a higher margin.

“With Callum, he had a bit of a stiff back going into the game yesterday and he just needed a bit of treatment ahead of it.

“It's just seized up on him towards the end there I think, and so we had to bring him off.

“Whether he is available for Tuesday, we will have to see.”