Assistant McAllister gives McGeady and Gooch injury updates

Sunderland are monitoring Leon Dajaku ahead of the trip to Gillingham this weekend.

Lee Johnson had confirmed on Wednesday night that Corry Evans and Nathan Broadhead would be absent from the league fixture through injury, though both are making good progress in their recovery from calf and hamstring injuries.

Niall Huggins has also been ruled out for three months with the onset of a stress fracture in his back.

Sunderland's international cohort all returned for training on Thursday morning and most have come through the period unscathed.

Dajaku, however, has a minor issue following his spell with the Germany Under-20s side that the Black Cats will assess ahead of Saturday's

game.

"All the international lads have returned now and trained this morning," assistant head coach Jamie McAllister said this afternoon.

"We've had no injuries which is a positive.

"The only one where we maybe have a slight issue is Leon Dajaku, who we're just monitoring at the moment.

"It's just a slight thigh strain so we'll just see how he is over the next 24, 48 hours."

Aiden McGeady missed the most recent League One game at Portsmouth with an ankle issue, but McAllister says he is closing in on a return and could yet feature against Steve Evans' side.

Lynden Gooch, who had an injection on a foot problem picked up in the 2-2 draw with Fleetwood, is highly unlikely to feature but should step up his recovery again over the next week.

"Aiden trained this morning so he's coming along nicely," McAllister said.

"He's been doing a lot of work in the last ten days, he still feels a little bit now and then in certain movements so we'll just monitor him over the next 48 hours and see how he is come the weekend.

"Lynden has been doing some running over the last couple of days so he's coming along nicely as well.

"Saturday will probably come a little too soon for him, but he is ticking along and we'll hopefully get him back training early next week."

Luke O’Nien will be available for selection for Sunderland despite suffering a rib injury at Lincoln City last week.