Luckless Sunderland lose a sixth player to a season-ending injury

Dan Ballard has joined the growing list of Sunderland players to miss the rest of the season after suffering a recurrence of his hamstring problem.

Ballard suffered the injury on international duty with Northern Ireland last month and missed the game against Burnley as a result.

He was also missing from the Sunderland line-up for the 4-4 draw against Hull City, although he did return to training and was pencilled in to return against Cardiff on Easter Monday.

That, though, will now not happen and it will be next season before we see the central defender on the pitch again.

"I think Ballard is going to be out for two or three weeks, which takes him just about to the end of the season which is a huge blow to us," said Mowbray, following his side's 4-4 draw against Hull City at the Stadium of Light.

"He trained for a few days and we had had a chat and he was going to start on Monday. Is it a recurrence? He felt it again, basically, at the end of training - he did train, and he was fine.

"It was very innocuous, he was just knocking a ball and he overstretched and felt his hamstring. The scan showed up a slight tear and he's going to be out for two or three weeks."

Ballard is the sixth Sunderland player to be ruled out for the rest season after Ross Stewart, Cory Evans, Elliot Embleton, Aji Alese and Jewison Bennette.

Bailey Wright, who is out on loan at Rotherham, is also expected to miss the rest of the campaign with a suspected broken leg.

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