TONY MOWBRAY will have to field a makeshift central defense this weekend after Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien both received bookings that will keep them out of Birmingham City’s home game.
Sunderland’s first-choice centre-halves each had four bookings for the season going into Saturday’s game at Swansea, and while Mowbray accepted they would almost certainly pick up a fifth yellow card at some point, he was desperate to avoid the ‘nightmare scenario’ of them being suspended for the same game.
However, after Ballard was shown a yellow card in the early stages of the second half against the Swans, O’Nien was booked for a foul in the third minute of stoppage time.
As a result, they will both miss Sunderland’s final game before the international break when Birmingham visit the Stadium of Light.
“My frustration was not with them, really, it was managing the game at the top end of the pitch,” Mowbray told the BBC. “There wasn’t really a threat at the back, so why were we making last-ditch tackles to get ourselves booked?” Simply better game management.
“It was frustrating that both of them got themselves into situations where they made bookable tackles, and now we’ll have to face Birmingham without both of our central defenders. It will be an opportunity for somebody else to come in and see if they can do the job.”
Jenson Seelt and Nectarios Triantis could play alongside each other against Birmingham, although neither has had much game time since joining Sunderland in the summer.
Seelt has made two Championship substitute appearances since joining Wearside, while Triantis has yet to play a minute of league football since leaving Australia.
Another option would be to start Niall Huggins or Trai Hume at centre-half, with Dennis Cirkin available to fill in at left-back.
Cirkin came on as a second-half substitute against Swansea, and there was a surprise on the bench last weekend in the form of 16-year-old goalkeeper Matty Young, who was named as Anthony Patterson’s replacement.
Sunderland’s second-choice goalkeeper this season has been Nathan Bishop, but Mowbray revealed the summer signing from Manchester United is unavailable due to a personal matter.
“There was no injury (to Bishop),” that’s what he said. “He has a family issue at home, and he needed to stay there so he didn’t travel.”
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