Sunderland: Michael Beale issues concerning Patrick Roberts update | OneFootball

Sunderland manager Michael Beale has given fans a worrying injury update on winger Patrick Roberts after he came off early in the side's Wednesday night loss to Huddersfield Town.

It was a bad night all round for Sunderland. Considering the league positions of the two sides, and the fact that the Terriers are still on the search for a permanent manager after sacking Darren Moore, who has sine been appointed as Port Vale manager, the Black Cats were prohibited favourites going into the game.

Coventry City dropped points away to Plymouth Argyle on the same night, so a victory would have seen Sunderland leap-frog the Sky Blues and get into the play-off places. But Beale's team put in a frustrating performance in a 1-0 loss to Huddersfield.

Worse still, Roberts was forced off with a muscle injury, and the boss has revealed that the news isn't good.

Patrick Roberts is expected to be out of action for a while

Beale revealed after the game that they are now expecting the winger to be out of action for a number of weeks after he limped off near the end of Wednesday night's game at the John Smith's Stadium. He had come on with around half an hour to go in the match, but the timing of his injury - about 10 minutes left in the game - meant that Sunderland had to play the remainder of the game with just 10 men, as they couldn't make another substitution.

"It just made it into an even worse night,"said Beale. "It’s his hamstring, and I’m told it looks as if it's the same as he did earlier in the season. He missed four or five weeks earlier in the season, and he feels it’s the same.

"It’s a really big shame because I thought he was bright when he came on. He came inside and the defender did fantastic to block it, and then he went outside on another one. We looked much stronger when he came on, so he’ll be a big loss."

The 27-year-old had only returned to action 10 days before, after recovering from a calf injury that he picked up in the club's final game of 2023. The manager added: "What’s he played for me? Two-and-a-half games now? And probably, that’s going to be it for a period of time now, so someone has to step up, for sure."

Sunderland are now thread-bare in the wide areas without Roberts

Before the winger picked up that calf injury against Rotherham United, the Black Cats had Jack Clarke, the 27-year-old, and Alex Pritchard to call on. All three are well-proven at this level, and it was a real area of strength for them. Now, with Roberts injured and Pritchard at Birmingham City, they only have Clarke left. The 27-year-old did come on in place of Abdoullah Ba to play on the right-hand side, but he's not an out-and-out right-winger.

The January additions of Romain Mundle and Callum Styles do help the situation, but they tend to play on the left, so Roberts' injury really only leaves Ba on the right.

The Frenchman has contributed three goals and four assists in the league so far this season, but they will need more production than that from the wide areas, given how poor they have been up front, if they want to challenge for the play-offs again.