Sunderland manager Lee Johnson says he is hopeful that midfielder Josh Scowen only suffered a knock when he was forced off during his side's 4-0 thrashing of Lincoln City on Saturday afternoon.

Having started the game, Scowen was forced off midway through the second half due to an injury concern, and the Black Cats are now waiting for news on the situation surrounding the 27-year-old.

Johnson was full of praise for the midfielder's performance prior to his substitution, and is hopeful that it was a knock rather than anything serious suffered by Scowen, although he is waiting for confirmation on that.

Speaking about the midfielder after the game, the Black Cats boss was quoted by The Sunderland Echo as saying: “I think he’s been brilliant, by the way. He’s obviously known me from before, but I think he’s been excellent. I don’t know [how bad it is].

"He just felt some shooting pains on the muscle that goes up the side of the shin. Hopefully, it’s one of those where he’ll be in some pain for 24 hours and then it’ll start to ease off.
"He’s not sure whether it was a knock or a muscle injury. It seemed more like a knock, but we’ll have to wait and see." So far this season, Scowen been a regular feature for the Black Cats in the league, featuring in 15 of their 16 League One games so far. Following that win at Sincil Bank, Sunderland are now eighth in the League One table, two points off the play-offs ahead of their clash with AFC Wimbledon at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night.

 

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The Verdict It does seem as though this could be something of a nervous wait for Sunderland here. Johnson is clearly pleased from what he has seen from Scowen so far, so you imagine he will want to continue to have him available for selection if possible. Indeed, it does seem as though Scowen is benefitting from playing under a manager he already knows in Johnson, having also done so at Barnsley, so he will be desperate to get back to action as soon as possible in order to keep benefitting from this recent decent run.