Sunderland confirm devastating Niall Huggins injury news ahead of knee surgery
Sunderland full back Niall Huggins will miss a ‘significant’ amount of time with the club confirming he requires knee surgery.
The defender was having a brilliant season after finally getting himself injury free following two years of struggle, but he was stretchered off in the 3-0 defeat to Coventry last week.
It looked like a bad one immediately, and Sunderland have now confirmed the worst – and it’s so bad they won’t even put a timescale on his return.
“Sunderland AFC confirms that Niall Huggins will undergo surgery after suffering a significant knee injury,” a club statement read.
“The Wales international was withdrawn in the 85th minute of the club’s fixture versus Coventry City after landing awkwardly.
“Although no specific timescale is being placed upon his return to action at this stage, it is expected that the defender will miss at least the remainder of the 2023-24 season.
“Everyone at SAFC is supporting Niall at this incredibly difficult time and will be working hard to get him back on the pitch as soon as possible.”
Huggins suffered the injury late in what was a miserable first game for Michael Beale, who now admits he may need to bring back Aji Alese, Timothee Pembele or Dennis Cirkin a little quicker than he’d ideally like.
“The game is really cruel because Niall has been having a fantastic,” Beale said after Coventry.
"Our options are obviously a bit limited in the full back areas, we may have to bring one of those guys who hasn't been back long into the team.
“With the amount of games we've got, everyone is going to have to bite down on the gumshield and we need to come out and show a different face at Hull. Good teams aren't just good with the football.
"We know we can move Trai across, Aji and Pembele played 45 minutes in the U21 game the other night. Dennis has trained three days this week, we know that Jenson can move out there and obvious we have the option of moving to a back three as we did against Leeds.
"But we're losing who I think has had an outstanding season, and a player who I was really looking forward to working with. I'm bitterly disappointing for him."
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