Yesterday evening Sunderland confirmed that midfielder Darren Gibson was set for a ten week spell on the sidelines with a groin injury.
Manager Chris Coleman confirmed after the defeat to Barnsley that the Republic of Ireland international had aggravated a long standing problem with his groin and yesterday, following a scan, the initial fears were confirmed.
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the FA Cup third round tie against Middlesbrough this weekend, Coleman explained.
‘He’s low, he’s down because in the way we want to play, he’s been key, really, and he was definitely grasping what we need from the holding midfielder in the formation we want to go with. Now we’ve lost him for eight weeks, 10 weeks possibly, and that’s a big blow. It’s a tough one.’
Coleman went on to say that he was hoping for some good news after further investigations though.
‘We are going to get one more opinion – we have had two and we are going to get one more opinion just to make sure, but we think it’s going probably eight to 10 weeks he’s going to be unavailable, which is a huge blow for us. There’s a little bit of doubt whether it’s completely off the bone, so we need that third opinion to make sure we get it right and then we can say, ‘Right, if it is, then it’s surgery and it’s eight weeks or whatever, and if it’s not quite off the bone, then maybe we could get him back a little bit quicker.’
The former Welsh gaffer went on to confirm that in reality he only had eleven fit seniors in the squad as we also have doubts over Paddy McNair and Aiden McGeady for the next match. Lee Cattermole, Didier Ndong, Jack Rodwell, Jonny Williams and Lynden Gooch were already known to be out for this one.
