Three Sunderland players ready for an opportunity after Elliot Embleton injury

Sunderland continued their wretched luck with injuries this season with Elliot Embleton now out for a lengthy amount of time.

The club have confirmed that Embleton suffered a fractured ankle and ‘significant’ ligament damage in the draw against Hull, and he will now undergo surgery next week before ‘an extended spell on the sidelines.’

One player’s injury means another player’s opportunity, though. Just ask Luke O’Nien. So who looks well-poised to be able to grasp an opportunity resulting from Elliot Embleton’s unfortunate injury?

Patrick Roberts

I sometimes wonder if the relative lack of popularity of Elliot Embleton among Sunderland fans is related to the popularity of Patrick Roberts.

There was a similar situation in the early 2000s when Kevin Kilbane was struggling to find any love from the Sunderland supporters. Kilbane wasn’t great, in fairness. He was a hard-working soldier who could occasionally pop a good cross into the box, but he wasn’t much of a footballer to watch.

The real problem he had in terms of popularity, though, was that Peter Reid kept on picking him ahead of Julio Arca, who was a magnificent player to watch. People, myself included if I am being brutally honest, saw Arca’s name omitted from the teamsheet again and took a dislike to the one in his place.

Is it a similar situation going on here? I mean, it’s okay when Patrick Roberts is left out for Amad Diallo, because he is obviously brilliant, but is there some transference going on with frustration when it’s Embleton who is making the former Celtic man sit out?

Regardless, Embleton’s injury should take another obstacle out of Roberts’ way and allow us to see a lot more of him on the pitch. He certainly made his presence felt at Hull when he came on and immediately created a goal for Ross Stewart.

No one wishes injury on any player, but when one happens, it’s pretty nice knowing you have a player like Roberts waiting in the wings and desperate for an opportunity.

Edouard Michut

In terms of sheer pedigree, there probably wasn’t a more exciting signing for Sunderland than Edouard Michut.

He came from one of the best clubs in the world with one of the most renowned academies on the planet and, what’s more, they rated him there. Certainly, Paris Saint-Germain rated him enough to give him some minutes in their first team as a teenager.

It’s very frustrating, then, that it hasn’t worked out for him yet. Injury has played a part in that and there have been some questions raised about his attitude due to the nature of his departure from PSG.

In truth, though, we haven’t really seen much of him. Michut has not started a game yet and has only played 66 minutes of football.

One big reason for that is that Mowbray does not seem to trust him in his preferred position of a deep-lying midfield playmaker, or regista for you Football Manager lovers out there.

However, Mowbray has suggested that one solution is to give him more minutes in a position where the Sunderland squad now has an enormous Elliot Embleton-shaped hole.

Speaking about Michut, Mowbray recently said: “My mind is telling me that Michut will have to start in this team at some stage, probably a little bit higher up and then depending on how the game goes he can deepen off his position to get the ball and work it up the pitch, rather than play as a holding midfield player.

“I think you can give him a licence to play and join in."

That sounds, certainly, like the kind of role that Embleton has been playing for Sunderland, so Michut could find himself getting a lot more opportunities in the second half of the season now.

Ellis Simms

With Ross Stewart back fit and Mowbray tending to favour his 4-2-3-1 system, Ellis Simms was probably starting to feel like he was just keeping the Scotsman’s spot warm for him.

They did play together earlier in the season, and in Mowbray’s first game in charge, but there is little in the former Blackburn manager’s track record to suggest he would plan for a front two.

Sunderland’s squad is packed with attacking midfield and wide talent too, so it has not been built for a two-up-front system either.

However, Mowbray now has one fewer attacking midfielders to think about getting minutes into, so that could spell more opportunities for Ellis Simms.

You could easily see Sunderland going back to a front two with Jack Clarke reprising his role as an attacking inverted left-wingback and Alex Pritchard or Amad Diallo behind a front two of Stewart and Simms.

Patrick Roberts

Edouard Michut

Ellis Simms

Read More Sunderland Coverage