Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has revealed that Ross Stewart could be in contention to face West Brom at the Stadium of Light next Monday.
Stewart has been out since the start of September after sustaining a thigh injury in the warm-up ahead of Sunderland's 1-0 defeat against Middlesbrough on September 5.
The Scotland international was targeting a return from injury after the World Cup but Mowbray wasn't prepared to risk him in Saturday's 3-0 win over Millwall.
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However, Stewart's return could come when West Brom visit the Stadium of Light in their next outing.
"There was no pressure to play him [on Saturday] but what's important is the factor of trust in the medical department, and my relationship with Ross," Mowbray told safc.com.
“The medical department thought it was too dangerous a risk to play Ross at the weekend. If he’d started or come off the bench and then had to go back off the pitch again because he was limping, you’d say we got that wrong.
“For me, Ross should train for a whole week and there are nine days between the Millwall and West Brom games, when he’ll be training a lot.
“We have a behind-closed-doors game with Middlesbrough which he could play some part in – he’s chomping at the bit to get back out there."
Dan Ballard has also been sidelined since August after playing just three league games since completing his switch from Arsenal in the summer.
Eduoard Michut and Niall Huggins didn't feature against Millwall and Mowbray has issued an update on all three players.
Mowbray added: "We’re hoping Dan Ballard isn’t too far behind him [Stewart] – he and Ross are two of our very best players that we’ve been without, and let’s hope when they return that’s the case.
“It’s a frustrating one with Edou – it’s an issue in his leg which has dragged on longer than we anticipated. He gives us a different option, and we’re hoping Edou is right when he says he thinks he can be back in contention next week.
“Niall is just continuing to work on building that robustness after such a long time out – we only planned for him to get 60 minutes at Birmingham and he not only got through 90, but performed very well. We expect him to feature plenty moving forward.”
Bailey Wright and Jewison Bennette are also expected back from their World Cup campaigns in time for Sunderland's meeting with the Baggies, although any chance of playing will be assessed.
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