Sunderland centre-forward Ellis Simms has suffered an injury setback ahead of the club's Championship clash with Preston North End...

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Black Cats manager Tony Mowbray has revealed that the striker will not be fit enough to return to action this weekend and has now returned to his parent club, Everton for further assessment.

He told the Northern Echo:

“We’d hoped he (Simms) might be alright after this international break. But that’s not going to be the case.

“We did say it would depend on how it developed. He’s had scans and X-rays, and it might be the case now that Everton want to do that as well.

“Our diagnosis is that there seems to be some ligament damage on his big toe – it doesn’t look like he’s ready to play for us this weekend. We’ll wait and see what Everton want to do and what their assessment is. Ultimately, it will always be the parent club who guide these decisions.

“It’s his big toe, and I know from 20 years of playing that it can be a sore injury and if it’s affecting you running, it’s very difficult.”

Mowbray should be frustrated

This comes as a big blow to Mowbray as Simms has enjoyed a strong start to life at the Stadium of Light and has proven, throughout his career so far, that he can score goals on a regular basis.

The striker has started eight matches in the Championship this season and averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.08 for the Black Cats, which is a score that only Ross Stewart, Jewison Bennette, Jack Clarke, and Alex Pritchard can better within the squad.

In those eight games, the 21-year-old has scored three goals and created two 'big chances' for his teammates, whilst only missing one 'big chance' in total.

Only Stewart (five) has found the back of the net more times than Simms for Sunderland in the league this season and this highlights how big of a loss he is to the team, particularly with his Scottish strike partner already being out injured.

It now remains to be seen when the on-loan Everton striker, who has scored 78 goals in 139 matches at youth and senior level, will be fit again, as the manager has not placed a timescale on his return.

Therefore, Mowbray will be frustrated because losing Simms is a big blow - due to the threat that he carries at the top end of the pitch - and it is unclear as to exactly how many matches he will miss.

Hopefully, the Toffees do not find any serious issues in their assessment of his injury and he will be back out on the pitch in the Championship sooner rather than later.