Sunderland have been handed a fresh injury update on Jack Clarke.
Clarke has now missed the last five matches for Sunderland with an ankle injury.
The 23-year-old was on the scoresheet in the 2-1 defeat vs Birmingham City in the Championship last month, but was later ruled out for an unspecified amount of time.
It was widely reported that the former Spurs winger would be missing until at least after this current international break, with Sunderland returning to action vs Cardiff City on Friday.
Will Jack Clarke return for Sunderland vs Cardiff City
Mike Dodds‘ Sunderland travel to Wales on Friday where they face one of the Championship’s surprise packages this season.
Cardiff City sit in 11th compared to the Black Cats in 12th, but have five more points than the Wearsiders, with eight points separating Cardiff and the top six.
Erol Bulut’s side could be dark horses in the race for top six this season, and they might fancy their chances against a depleted Sunderland side.
Clarke won’t be fit to feature in the Welsh capital, as per Phil Smith, but Smith has revealed on X that Clarke is ‘back out running’, albeit ‘not yet in full training’.
So far this season, Clarke has featured 33 times in the Championship, with 15 goals and four assists to his name.
Jack Clarke facing race against time to make final appearance for Black Cats
Of all the players that could potentially be sold at Sunderland this summer, Clarke seems like the likeliest to be sold on.
Sunderland did well to keep him beyond last summer and January where Burnley and Lazio both tried and failed to sign the Englishman.
Doing so, and then watching Clarke rack up 19 goal contributions in the Championship this season has seen his transfer value sky rocket.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman may now be expecting to rake in upwards of £20million for Clarke, which could then fund a big summer in the transfer market and in the dugout too.
For Clarke though, after the platform that Sunderland has given him following a tough period, he’ll surely want to play one last time.
The fact that he’s out running again is positive, though not being in training with just eight games of the season left to play may mean Clarke is cutting it fine.
He could well come back in for the final three or four matches and it could well be that Clarke keeps Sunderland in the league; the Black Cats are winless in seven and sit just nine points above the drop zone.
Either way, Clarke playing again this season would be a huge positive for all involved.