Jack Ross hoping Sunderland can overcome injury woes for crunch week | OneFootball

Sunderland boss Jack Ross is hopeful that he will have a bigger squad to call upon for their crunch Easter fixtures this week.

The Black Cats take on Doncaster and Peterborough in the space of just three days’ this weekend and Ross has seen his options diminish in recent weeks.

Chris Maguire and Adam Matthews are long-term absentees while Lee Cattermole and Aiden McGeady have been sidelined with muscle injuries.

But Ross is confident that he will have more robust options to call upon as the League One promotion race hots up.

“Dylan [McGeouch], we don’t know [if he’ll be fit for Saturday],” Ross said.

“Reece [James] and Adam [Matthews] I would hope might be able to train by the middle of the week but obviously the game is Friday.

Chris [Maguire] trained Thursday and Friday a little bit, so potentially if he can get through a week’s training he might come back into contention.

“Lee [Cattermole] only joined training on Thursday, Aiden [McGeady] has not been training.

“Lynden [Gooch} will be touch and go,” he added.

“We’re stretched, it’s not a good time of the season to be stretched, but we are. I wouldn’t know until the week unfolds as to who might be available.

“It was a bit limited in terms of the changes we could make during the game on Saturday but certainly for Lee, he’s going to get a week’s training in which will help.”

Sunderland are currently two points behind Barnsley in second.