Sunderland will be without two key players for their opening friendly of the season against South Shields, but may also see them miss additional fixtures.

As reported by the club's official site, Aiden McGeady and Max Power will both sit out this evening's sold-out game against the 2017 FA Vase Winners, with concerns over their fitness extending beyond Saturday's behind-closed-doors friendly and into matches against Benfica B and Belenenses on their tour of Portugal next week.

McGeady has still not recovered from the fractured foot he sustained at the end of last season, an injury exasperated by him playing on into their vital promotion run-in.

"Aiden will hopefully be able to train at some point in pre-season but at the moment he is still a couple of weeks away from joining in full training,” confirmed manager Jack Ross.

"He'll miss Thursday and Saturday. The earliest he could potentially be involved would be Portugal but even then, it might be too soon."

Whilst McGeady is hoping to see some pre-season action, the diagnosis is not so good for Max Power. He's likely to miss the opening game against Oxford United after picking up a 'nasty' ankle injury.

"Max Power will probably struggle to make the start of the season. He got quite a nasty injury actually, an ankle injury that takes quite a long time to heal.

"Max is in really good condition and looks after himself really well, it's just that the injury takes time to settle. He's possibly another three or four weeks away."

McGeady missed the start of last season with an injury, only returning in September, whilst a number of dismissals ensured Power also missed matches before Christmas by virtue of suspension.

The Verdict

This is never good news; players injured before a ball has been kicked. With McGeady, Sunderland are paying the price of pushing him through matches at the end of the season. Ultimately, his attempts to help get them into the top two were fruitless and now they're having to suffer the consequences.

It's not a situation the club wanted to be in. They've got a tough opening run, Oxford, Portsmouth and Ipswich and Ross will need to get off to a good start if he's to settle down the supporters.

Getting McGeady back is key. He's too good for League One and proved it last season. Whilst they can cover Power's absence, there are few with McGeady's talents in the whole division, let alone the Black Cats' squad.