When it comes to injuries and Sunderland in the last few weeks, the two have gone hand in hand.
The squad was ravaged by a Covid outbreak and now they are having to deal with a plethora of injury problems.
Danny Graham, Luke O’Nien and Conor McLaughlin are all absent, and there was further bad news on the fitness front this week.
That was regarding Denver Hume, someone who has received a setback in a bid to get fit again.
Manager Lee Johnson stated this week: “Unfortunately, Denver has had a recurrence of his injury during his rehabilitation. It’s bad news on that one. He’s got a grade three hamstring tear, which probably means somewhere between six and eight weeks out.”
Johnson continued: “I feel for him, first and foremost. He’d worked really hard and got up to top speed, which was good, and we thought he was probably a week or ten days away, but then a very innocuous stretch for a pass that was misplaced meant that the injury ended up recurring. We’ve sent him for a scan, and that’s ended up coming back not good. That’s a shame.”
Hume initially suffered the problem during the club’s 1-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic under caretaker boss Andrew Taylor so he’s been out for a number of weeks now.
However, what this will prompt, is a big dilemma for Johnson.
His left-back options beyond the £2.4k-per-week earner are enough to give him a selection headache. Calum McFadzean gave away a penalty in a shocking performance against Wimbledon a month ago. He lost possession 15 times during that game and also failed to make a single successful tackle in the entire match.
He did keep a clean sheet against Port Vale in the Papa John’s Trophy but this is why Johnson now has a quandary. After all, Dion Sanderson has also played on the left of defence and kept a clean sheet against Northampton.
In that game, the Wolves loanee won more tackles (5) than any player on his team. It was a competent display from the youngster who is vying competitively for more game time.
With Hume now ruled out for another two months, the manager has a major decision to make over who becomes his first-choice left-back.