Sunderland boss Lee Johnson has confirmed that Dennis Cirkin is facing around six weeks on the sidelines after suffering a hernia injury.

The left-back joined the Black Cats from Tottenham in the summer on a permanent deal and he has generally impressed for the Wearside outfit, featuring in 13 games this season and registering two assists.

However, he was not involved in the 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town this afternoon, with Johnson revealing after the game that Cirkin is going to be out until the New Year at least.

That will be a major blow for Sunderland given the number of games they've got to play between now and then, with nine League One games scheduled by early January.

Pleasingly though, he wasn't missed too much against the Tractor Boys, with the versatile Luke O'Nien filling in that position for the clash and he scored the crucial opener late on to help the team to a massive three points.

Denver Hume, who would be the natural backup, is also out with an ankle injury.

freshpress-quiz title="Have any of these 30 ex-Sunderland players ever played abroad?"]

The verdict

This is not good news for Johnson as with Cirkin and Hume out the team are short on natural left-backs, which could be problematic over this very busy period.

Of course, today proved that there is good squad depth at Sunderland, and that's why players like O'Nien are so valuable over what is a long, tough campaign.

Ultimately, these things happen in football and it's now down to the players to keep grinding out results, whilst Cirkin will already be counting down the days until he is back to play a part in the promotion push.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.