Sunderland have a 'wonderful' replacement for Ross Stewart, says Tony Mowbray

Tony Mowbray has admitted that losing Ross Stewart to injury is a ‘huge’ blow for Sunderland, but he believes Joe Gelhardt can be an ‘amazing,’ if indirect, replacement.

Stewart was stretchered off at Craven Cottage in the first half of Sunderland’s FA Cup fourth round tie and Mowbray is awaiting the results of a scan on what looks like a very serious Achilles injury.

It is the latest injury blow for Sunderland in a challenging season, with captain Corry Evans also out for the season with a knee problem.

Elliot Embleton is another long-term absentee, while Dennis Cirkin, Aji Alese, Niall Huggins, Dan Ballard, Lynden Gooch and Alex Pritchard have all missed many games with injury too.

Mowbray has already revealed that he plans to ask the Sunderland recruitment team for help dealing with Stewart’s absence, but he was keen to talk up Gelhardt too.

Asked by safc.com if he was expecting to be busy with transfers in the next couple of days, Mowbray said: “More so Kristjaan [Speakman] and the recruitment staff, to be honest. They're burning the oil late into the night to try and help the team.

“The loss of Ross Stewart is huge for us. It's amazing that we've managed to get young Gelhardt in the building, who's a wonderful talent. He's a different type of footballer of course to Ross.

“Let's wait and see whether need any more within the next few days.”

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