Ahead of the weekend’s tie against Burnley, Sunderland confirmed that midfielder Jan Kirchhoff had suffered another blow in his return to fitness.
With the 26 year old German on the edge of a competitive return following the knee injury that has kept him sidelined since the game against Chelsea back in December 2016, the player has suffered a recurrence of the problem and is now expected to be out for a further six weeks.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media ahead of Burnley, Moyes gave the news.
‘It`s not good. At the end of the Manchester City game I felt this break would give us a chance to get Kirchhoff and couple of others back, but unfortunately Jan has suffered a recurrence of his knee problem.’
Moyes went on to say.
‘It looks like it`s going to keep him out for a minimum of six weeks. He came back and played for the reserves against Manchester United two weeks ago, but his knee swelled up immediately after and he only trained for a couple of days before pulling out. Since then he`s been back to see the surgeon and I don`t think there`s any damage, I just think it`s going to take longer than we`d first hoped for it to heal. It`s a lateral meniscus on the outside and it just takes a little bit more time, but we`re running out of time here and we need the injured players back.’
To complete the story, as he gave the update on Kirchhoff, Moyes also gave an update on Victor Anichebe who is in the United States at the moment to help his recovery.
‘We`ve sent Victor to work with a specialist in America and he should be back shortly – this weekend or next weekend I think. He`s running and he`s back on it so we felt that sending him to someone who can work one-on-one with him constantly was the best option, and it looks like it`s working.’
Adding.
‘My aim was to get him back for as much of April as I can, and I can`t guarantee that at the moment but we`re doing everything we can.’
