Dennis Cirkin will return to the Sunderland squad for tomorrow night's trip to Queens Park Rangers after recovering from concussion. The defender suffered a head injury as he scored the Black Cats' equaliser at Millwall last weekend and was knocked unconscious, meaning he had to follow the FA's mandatory concussion protocols which set out how quickly a player can return to training and playing.
Cirkin missed Sunderland's FA Cup defeat against Fulham last Wednesday and was not ready for selection for Saturday's home win against Reading. But he is back in training and boss Tony Mowbray confirmed today that the 20-year-old would travel with the squad to London ahead of tomorrow's game at Loftus Road.
"Dennis is travelling," said Mowbray. "He has trained for the last few days and he feels alright, so he's back and available."
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But while Cirkin is ready to return, Lynden Gooch is still expected to need a couple more weeks before he has recovered from the hip injury that has sidelined him for a month, and Niall Huggins is not yet ready to make his comeback from the knock that has kept him out for a fortnight. He said: "Lynden is still going to be our for a few more weeks, he's not on the grass - I haven't seen him out there even with the physios yet.
"Niall also isn't ready yet. He hasn't trained with us. Niall is an amazing character, who is so good and so intense at everything he does, but at the moment his body is just letting him down a bit because he keeps on breaking down.
"He's got a bit of Luke O'Nien about him in the intensity with which he wants to play and wants to get better and yet he just keeps getting knock-backs. I hope that somewhere along the line, because he is still a young guy, his body finds the robustness to keep going because he is a really good player, really talented, and really driven."
Despite the weekend win against Reading which lifted Sunderland to seventh place in the table, Mowbray admitted after the game that some of his players looked 'dull' and speculated that it may have been because they had played three demanding games in the space of a week. With that in mind, Mowbray is considering making some changes at QPR.
He said: "Maybe a few [changes]. You can't change your whole team - we haven't got the personnel to change the whole team - but there are a few players who are, not underperforming, but not performing at the heights they would be when there's one game a week, when they are sharp, bright, alert.
"I'll probably just try to freshen it up with one or two [changes]. It's rotation, and you hope that you don't weaken your team too much when you rotate.
"It's about squad depth, and by that I don't mean numbers but quality. So if we do make one or two changes, they need to come in and perform in the same vein and help the team."
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