Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray confirms double injury blow ahead of Blackburn Rovers clash

Sunderland have been hit with a double injury blow ahead of their trip to Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night.

Tony Mowbray confirmed in his pre-match press conference that neither Bradley Dack or Pierre Ekwah will be fit for the game at Ewood Park, as the Black Cats look to build on their excellent wins against Southampton and QPR.

Ekwah and Dack are also highly doubtful for this weekend's visit of Cardiff City, but should both be back in contention for the trip to Hillsborough to face Sheffield Wednesday next Friday.

Mowbray is confident there is no serious issue with either player, though Ekwah in particular will be a big miss having previously been ever-present so far this season.

The head coach had already confirmed after the win over QPR that Dennis Cirkin would be unavailable for the upcoming run of fixtures due to a hamstring strain.

"Dennis obviously is going to be a few weeks, potentially after the next international break but I honestly don't know for sure, we'll wait and see," Mowbray said.

"Pierre has a dead leg and he got a bang in exactly the same place five minutes into the QPR game. It's quite swollen and these things tend to filter down the leg. He's got some swelling, so he probably needs ten days to let it all settle down. I don't think it's anything we have any major concerns about, other than the frustration for him that he's going to miss a game or two.

"Bradley Dack has tweaked his hamstring. We need to give him some time to get it right. It's not a major concern for everybody, but he's carried it for a week or so and continued to play, but then it gets a little bit worse.

"So we've made the call to take him out of the situation for two or three weeks and let him fully recover, do his rehab and he'll be back fine."

The injuries will bring Alex Pritchard and Patrick Roberts into contention for a start, with Jobe Bellingham likely to drop deeper into midfield in place of Ekwah.