Johnson confirms six-week injury set-back, but provides Luke update

Lee Johnson has confirmed that Niall Huggins will be out for a further six weeks.

The talented and versatile full-back withdrew from Wales U21 duty in October with a back complaint with scans revealing that Huggins had suffered the onset of a stress fracture.

Johnson had expected the former Leeds United youngster to be out for a minimum of three months, but that time frame has been extended.

Huggins has made a major impression in his four senior appearancessincesigningearlierthissummer,andwasparticularly impressive in the 5-0 league win over Cheltenham Town.

“In terms of Niall Huggins, he’s going to be an extra six weeks.Abitofasetbackthere,” Johnson explained. “It is disappointing.Itjusthasn’tfused as well as we would have liked itto.Thereforeitisanothersix weeks.

“Bless him. He has been coming to all of the games and he’s watching all the postmatch reviews.

“We love him and we love him about the place, but we feel sorry for him but at the sametime,hehasalongcareer ahead of him.

“We need to make sure he is right as rain to play for the next 15 years, not just the next 15 days.

“Originally, it was a threemonth injury but it’s plus another six weeks now, which is frustrating.”

Johnson, though, was morepositiveregardingLuke O’Nien, who went under the knife earlier this week to repair a shoulder injury.

"It [the surgery] went well. We have managed to speak to the surgeon and he did have a tear as we know but it was a substantial tear.

"But at the same time, he is very confident and happy that he has repaired it well. The process now is six weeks intheslingandthensixweeks inrehabwithoutbeingableto step foot on the grass.

“Then it is at the head physio’s discretion really in terms of how hard he pushes it and how early that contact comes to build up the confidence levels and the strength of that joint.”

"If he comes back in 13 weeks, he’s done extremely well.”

O’Nien has been deployed in a number of positions during his time at the club.

And the 27-year-old is also seen as part of Sunderland’s leadership group, a quality his head coach is keen to see O’Nien develop.