Sunderland midfielder Duncan Watmore missed his side's 1-0 defeat to Coventry City on Sunday afternoon with a bruised heel, manager Phil Parkinson has revealed.

Watmore did not feature in the matchday squad for the trip to St Andrew's, with striker Will Grigg coming into the 18 as a result, as Matt Gooden's second-minute strike ultimately proved to be enough to condemn Sunderland to just a second league defeat in their last 16 league games.

After the game, Parkinson gave his reasoning for leaving Watmore out of the side, and it appears as though the midfielder will not be unavailable for long, with the Black Cats' manager telling the Sunderland Echo: “Duncan’s just got a bruised heel.

“We just felt it was best that we left him out of the 18 today, and hopefully he’ll be right for next week.”

That game next week sees Sunderland host Gillingham at the Stadium of Light, when Parkinson's side will be looking for revenge after suffering 1-0 away defeats to the Gills in both the league and the FA Cup earlier this season.

Following that defeat to Coventry, Sunderland will go into that clash on Saturday afternoon fifth in the League One table, four points adrift of the automatic promotion places.

Watmore has made a total of 22 appearances in all competitions for Sunderland so far this season, and had come off the bench in three of the Black Cats last four games prior to that defeat to Coventry.

The Verdict

This ought to be something of a relief for Sunderland.

With so many important games to come over the next few weeks and months, Parkinson is going to want to have as many options as possible available to him to cope with the demands of the promotion race.

As a result, the fact that Watmore looks likely to be available sooner rather than later, means that that scope to rotate ought to remain for Parkinson ahead of that Gillingham clash.

Having been so troubled by injuries in recent years, this latest update will also be a relief to Watmore from a personal perspective, as he will feel he has already lost enough game time to injuries over the course of his career.