One Sunderland star has been tipped to be ‘massive’ for the Black Cats in their final eight games of the campaign.
Sunderland have well and truly run out of opportunities to rescue their play-off pursuit, now sitting a humiliating 13 points from sixth place.
However, Mike Dodds‘ side will still want to end the season on a high after losing six of their last seven games in the Championship.
That task is made even more challenging by the absence of Jack Clarke though, with Sunderland netting only four goals since he got injured.
With Luke O’Nien also missing the last two game due to suspension, the squad has been looking younger than ever and has left them at a huge disadvantage.
Sunderland will now look to use the international break to rest and recover, and hopefully come out looking a much improved side for the final run-in.
Dodds could be handed a huge boost with Corry Evans potentially returning to full fitness, having played the first 45 minutes of the U21s’ defeat to Newcastle United earlier this week.
We Are Sunderland journalist Matty Hewitt heaped praise on the midfielder following his display at the Academy of Light, tipping him to be ‘massive’ for the Black Cats in the final weeks of the season.
Speaking on We Are Sunderland’s YouTube channel, Hewitt said: “One person who I didn’t think struggled was Corry Evans. Look, I’m not going to get too carried away as there’s eight games left and he’s been out for over a year, but I just thought in that first half he was head and shoulders. I know he was playing U21s, but I just thought that is what Sunderland have missed.
“He’s just a seasoned pro, experienced head in that role. Some of the passes he was able to pick… it was quite interesting, I didn’t think he looked like a player who had been out for over a year. I though the dictated the play when he could.
“If they can keep him fit between now and the end of the season then he’s going to be massive.”
Why have we missed Corry Evans so much?
It’s frustrating that Corry Evans suffered that injury setback earlier this month, because if he had returned earlier then we could have been heading into the international break a lot less concerned.
While the Northern Ireland international isn’t the most talented footballer in the world, he gets stuck in and knows exactly how to tidy up our mistakes.
We are really missing his leadership and commitment, and there’s no doubt that he will really want to come back and make a difference to the team.
The key thing is not pushing him too hard though. We aren’t really playing for anything but pride at this point of the campaign, so we don’t want to overplay him and risk him getting injured again.
If Evans can help turn results around then he may earn himself a new contract, because it wouldn’t surprise me if Kristjaan Speakman was planning on getting rid of him before he turned 34 years old.