Sunderland fan Grant Leadbitter will play through the pain barrier so our promotion push can stay on track. Leadbitter dislocated his shoulder at Crewe, but that won’t stop him doing everything in his power to see us leave this shit league…
“Grant went to see a specialist, and the diagnosis was major trauma to everything in his shoulder. But it is a manageable situation. With the right strapping and the right conditions, it can be managed. There is a risk that it might pop out again, but I think Grant is probably willing to take that risk. Maybe not necessarily over the short term, but over the medium term as he gets stronger and starts to feel a bit more comfortable. He looked an American football player today because he had a nice thick padding, but hopefully that will help him and his confidence. The situation will always remain the same – there’s a 50 per cent chance that his shoulder will pop out again – and if it does, then I think it will require surgery. But at the moment, there are protective measures we can use to aid the healing and mitigate against the chances of it popping out again.”
Tom Flanagan and Bailey Wright are also close to returning and Denver Hume is also back in training. “Denver has had a long injury lay-off. It’s really been the whole time I’ve been here because he did it in that first game. You need to tick the boxes and there are steps to getting back to a first-team game. He’s been in controlled training which is good, and is moving well. That means we can step it on, and ideally, you’d want a player like that to get one or two 90 minutes, or at least 45 minutes, before even considering a first-team return.”
