Ross Stewart was 'eased back' into the Sunderland side at Hull City - but Tony Mowbray has hinted that his star striker could start on Boxing Day. Stewart has spent three-and-a-half months out of action with a thigh injury he picked up in early September, but he was named on the teamsheet for the first time since recovering when the Black Cats went to the MKM Stadium yesterday.
And he wasted no time in making an impact, coming off the bench and within 15 minutes scoring his sixth goal of the season to regain his status as the club's top scorer. Stewart played on half-an-hour on his return and head coach Mowbray insisted afterwards that he had not been tempted to start him against the Tigers.
But he did suggest that Stewart could now be available to start when Sunderland take on Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light in the lunchtime kick-off on Boxing Day. "You have to do the right thing," he said, following the 1-1 draw on Humberside.
READ MORE: Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray fears Elliot Embleton has suffered a serious injury in draw at Hull
"The right thing wouldn't have been to be tempted into starting Ross because only two weeks ago I told you he was fit [to play against West Brom] and was going to be on the bench and then he felt a little niggle. The right thing is to ease him back into the team.
"If you think back to when we had no strikers [when Stewart and Ellis Simms were both injured], we had to deal with it. Ellis has scored a couple of goals in recent games, he had a decent chance in the first half when he blazed it over the bar [at Hull].
"So it wasn't as though we had gone ten games without scoring so we needed our main striker back, we have been scoring goals. The best thing is to ease him back, but there is a fair chance though that he could start on Boxing Day and it's exciting to think of two strikers in this team, with Amad, Roberts, Clarke giving service to them."
Hull's Oscar Estupinan missed a penalty early in the second half against Sunderland, before the Black Cats were reduced to ten men just before the hour when Elliot Embleton was shown a straight red card, with the midfielder also departing on a stretcher after suffering what looked like a serious injury in the challenge that led to his dismissal. Stewart's goal then put the ten men ahead, although they could not hold out and Hull sub Ozan Tufan levelled eight minutes from time.
Mowbray said: "They were disappointed in the dressing room, but they shouldn't be disappointed really - we were playing against a team on the up, a team with a lot of confidence. We controlled it in the first half.
"But then with ten men it was very, very, difficult. Credit to the team that we came away with a point from a very tough scenario."
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