Sunderland will once again be without centre back Jordan Willis and attacker Lynden Gooch when they host Burton Albion on Tuesday night, although the duo are both closing in on a return to action, the club's first-team coach Andy Taylor has revealed.
Gooch missed Sunderland's 1-1 draw with Fleetwood on Friday night due to an ankle injury, while Willis has missed the Black Cats last two games with fitness problems of his own, although it now seems the pair are progressing in their bid to get back to full fitness.
Providing an update on the duo, Taylor - who is in interim charge of the club following the sacking of manager Phil Parkinson on Sunday night - told The Sunderland Echo: “Lynden [Gooch] and Jordan [Willis] are both still out, but they aren’t too far off returning.
“Jordan was out doing a lot of running today, so hopefully he will be available for selection in the next week or so."
It also seems as though Taylor will have largely the same squad to work with on Tuesday, as Parkinson did at Fleetwood on Friday.
Discussing the situation around the rest of the club's players,
Taylor went on to add:
"Josh Scowen has a black eye from Friday evening, but he’ll be ready. Aiden [O’Brien] should be okay as well, but he picked up a slight knock in training yesterday and we’ll assess him in the morning.
“As it stands, it looks like we’ll be able to pick from the same group of players that were available against Fleetwood Town.”
Sunderland go into that game with Burton eighth in the League One table, two points off the top-six and five adrift of automatic promotion, after failing to win their last five games in all competitions.
The Verdict
This revelation from Taylor around Willis and Gooch will surely be a big relief for plenty associated with the club.
With the poor run of form they are currently on, the Black Cats are surely going to need as many options as possible to help them back on form, and start pushing for promotion again.
Indeed, both Willis and Gooch are players who can be particularly influential for Sunderland when they are on the pitch, so you feel they especially, will be a welcome addition to the club's options when they get back to full fitness.
