Sunderland boss Roy Keane will be without Irish midfielder Liam Miller for Saturday's Barclays Premier League match at home to Aston Villa.
Miller was sent off in last weekend's 2-0 defeat at Chelsea and must serve a three-match ban.
Kieran Richardson has returned to training after a back injury but is still a number of weeks away from a first-team return, as is Nyron Nosworthy (hamstring) and Carlos Edwards (broken leg).
Keane must decide whether to stick with Darren Ward in goal or bring back expensive summer signing Craig Gordon, who has been out of the team for the last two matches.
Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov is ruled out of the clash at the Stadium
of Light.
The Bulgarian midfielder has not recovered sufficiently from the hamstring injury
which sidelined him for the 2-0 home reversal by Portsmouth last weekend.
Villa manager Martin O'Neill has no fresh injury worries as the smallest squad in
the top flight prepares for the demanding festive programme.
Villa will be searching for a fourth successive away win to get their European challenge
back on track after home reversals against Arsenal and Pompey.