Sunderland Dealt Huge Injury Blow as Watmore Suffers Recurrence of Cruciate Knee Injury
Duncan Watmore's injury nightmare is set to continue after the Sunderland forward suffered a second successive cruciate knee ligament injury.
The BBC's David Ornstein took to Twitter to reveal that the Black Cats youth product had suffered the sickening blow which will leave him sidelined for another 10 months.
Watmore had only recently returned from the same injury in his left knee in late September but, after suffering a recurrence of the terrible injury, will now miss the rest of the 2017/18 campaign.
The news will come as a huge blow to new Sunderland boss Chris Coleman, who likely would have hoped that the 23-year-old could help lead his side's charge up the Championship table.
Watmore made his comeback from his first cruciate injury in the 2-2 draw with Preston North End on 30th September - the forward emerging as a 64th-minute substitute at Deepdale.
LINDSEY PARNABY/GettyImages
He had featured another seven times for the senior Sunderland side, with five of those appearances coming from the start.
However, Watmore was struck down in the 42nd minute of the 2-2 draw against Millwall last Saturday and was subsequently stretchered from the field of play.
An initial prognosis identified that he had sustained a reoccurence of the exact same injury that he had picked up in December 2016 and, as Ornstein reported, will undergo surgery to correct the issue after scans are undertaken once the swelling around his knee has gone down.
Sunderland currently find themselves rooted to the foot of the Championship table having taken just 11 points from their 17 league matches to date - form that saw ex-manager Simon Grayson sacked and replaced by former Wales chief Coleman.
Watmore, who is just one appearance shy of reaching 50 in all competitions for Sunderland, had been touted as the brightest player to emerge from their academy for some time.
With another long period on the treatment table ahead of him, however, reaching that landmark will be some way off and Coleman will make do with the other attackers available to him.
