DENNIS CIRKIN and Lynden Gooch are yet to return to training – but Tony Mowbray remains hopeful that the pair could be passed fit to feature in Saturday’s play-off semi-final first leg with Luton Town.

Cirkin was forced off at the half-time interval of Monday’s dramatic final-day decider at Preston after suffering an ankle injury towards the end of the first half. Gooch was unable to complete the full 90 minutes at Deepdale after sustaining a minor hamstring problem of his own, with the pair joining a lengthy defensive injury list that already features Danny Batth, Dan Ballard and Aji Alese.

Neither Cirkin nor Gooch were able to train today, but Mowbray is hoping they will be able to join the rest of the first-team group at the Academy of Light tomorrow morning. Provided they come through that unscathed, they would give themselves every chance of lining up against Luton at a sold-out Stadium of Light on Saturday teatime.

“Neither of them have trained, but they might train tomorrow,” said the Sunderland boss. “If they train tomorrow and then they put their hand up after five minutes and have to come off, then they won’t be playing on Saturday. But if they come through the session, there’s a chance they’ll play.

“We have to see. We didn’t ask them to train today because there’s no need for them to train today. We’ll have a light training session tomorrow, and if they come through it, we’ll have a one-to-one chat and if we decide to go with it, then that’ll be the case. In all honesty, as I sit here, I don’t know if they’re going to be available or not.”

Joe Anderson would be an alternative option as part of a back four, but while Mowbray has been happy with the way in which the 22-year-old has settled in since joining from Everton in January, he does not feel the youngster is ready for the demands of a play-off semi-final.

READ MORE:

“We’ve got young Joe Anderson, who we took from Everton, but I don’t want to expose him to such a big game at this moment,” said Mowbray. “He’s a young boy, and if we hadn’t wanted to integrate him into the club, we would have sent him on loan because we had some inquiries on that day we signed him.

“I wanted him to get to know the lads and gel into the football club. He’s got a few substitute appearances, as he had at Preston, but I think it would probably be unfair to ask any more of him.”