Sunderland could look at strengthening at full-back in the transfer window following their most recent injury update.
It’s been a topsy-turvy campaign for the Black Cats, who find themselves clinging onto the final play-off place with investment needed in this window.
The main priority for Michael Beale is to sign a more clinical striker as his current crop of forwards simply haven’t been good enough.
The likes of Mason Burstow, Nazariy Rusyn and Luis Hemir Semedo only have one goal between them in this campaign. This must be prefixed by the fact their average age is just 21.6 and are inexperienced at Championship level.
Sunderland are scouring the market for an experienced alternative to supplement the four forwards that were brought in during the summer.
Reports have linked the Black Cats to Bournemouth striker Kieffer Moore on loan and Blackburn Rovers hitman Sam Gallagher.
Those are two of the many names being explored by Kristjaan Speakman and his scouting team, however, perhaps a more pressing issue has now emerged after the club provided the latest on their injury crisis.
Sunderland now told to sign a full-back in this transfer window
As reported by the Sunderland official website, Sunderland left-back Dennis Cirkin, who has missed the majority of this campaign due to injury, is now expected to miss the rest of it after undergoing surgery on his left hamstring.
The club also revealed that fellow full-back Niall Huggins will miss at least the remainder of the campaign after undergoing surgery on a significant knee injury that he picked up during the festive period.
On top of that, Beale is set to be without Patrick Roberts until next month while Bradley Dack is continuing his recovery from a hamstring injury.
This injury situation is far from ideal for Sunderland, which is why calls for them to sign a new full-back have grown louder, and journalist Michael Graham expects this to be an area they now target.
He wrote on Twitter: “Cirkin out for three months after surgery and Roberts out until February.
“Cirkin’s season practically wiped out, but one positive is that by the time he plays again for #SAFC, #THFC’s buy-back clause will have expired. Suspect Sunderland will look at FB options now.”
In recent weeks, Sunderland have used Jenson Seelt and Aji Alese as makeshift full-backs, deploying Seelt on the right and Alese on the left.
Although that duo have rarely put a foot wrong, signing cover at left-back is now imperative for Sunderland.
Without Huggins or Cirkin, the North East side are missing pace, skill and dynamism on either side and Beale likes to encourage his full-backs to bomb forward.
With that said, signing a new player in that position is certainly something that should be explored in this window given they’d prefer not to rely on centre-backs to cover them.