Jewison Bennette is set to undergo shoulder surgery in the next week with Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray hopeful the winger will be fit when the players return for pre-season. Bennette suffered a dislocated shoulder in a training session with Costa Rica while away on international duty last week, which ruled him out of his country's CONCACAF Nations League game against Panama.
He was pictured with his right arm in a sling as he arrived to watch the Costa Rica game from the stands, and Mowbray said the 18-year-old would be ruled out for the remainder of Sunderland's run-in. Bennette visited a specialist in London this week and will have the shoulder pinned to reduce the chances of a recurrence - a similar procedure to the one undergone by Luke O'Nien in December 2021, and which sidelined him for three months last season.
In Bennette's case, a three-month recovery period would mean he would be fit around the time Sunderland's players regroup at the Academy of Light in early July to begin preparing for the new season. "Jewi was in London the other day for a second opinion - it was good, actually, because the two specialists he has seen are both Spanish-speaking, which helps," said Mowbray.
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"I think they have come up with a conclusion of what we're going to do. There's an element of risk in all of these shoulder [injuries], no surgeon is ever going to say 'that's never going to pop out ever again'.
"There are different levels of procedure in terms of how much they do. The choice has been made of which route they are going down, and I would imagine the surgery will be in the next week or so.
"We've tried to minimise the risk for him of it popping out again and it probably adds a few more weeks on to the recovery from the surgery, but the close-season is coming and he'll hopefully get fit over the summer and be ready for pre-season."
Sunderland fans who attended Monday's open training session at the Stadium of Light were heartened to see star striker Ross Stewart in attendance, although he is clearly still some way from being ready to resume training after rupturing his Achilles tendon in January and subsequently undergoing an operation. Asked how the Scotland international striker's rehabilitation was progressing, Mowbray said: "Ross has been walking about the building - he's getting pretty good at darts, I can see that!
"Ross is a really good lad, a really good pro, and he works really hard. It's good to have him around the building because he has been such an integral part of the success of the team over the last year or so.
"He's on course as far as I know, he looks fine, he hasn't got that big plastic boot on all the time now."
Stewart is just one of several Sunderland players ruled out for the rest of the season, along with Corry Evans (cruciate ligament), Elliot Embleton (broken ankle), and Aji Alese (thigh). Mowbray said: "Elliot is walking without a boot, Corry is walking around without any protection as such.
"The longer-term lads all look fine to me, and I think they're on course. We hope they'll be back with us in pre-season, or at least two of them because Corry might be just a bit after pre-season."
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