Burnley's next opponents Sunderland suffer 'serious' injury blow

Burnley’s Friday night opponents Sunderland have suffered what appears to be a ‘serious’ injury concern ahead of the Championship clash.

Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris has provided an update on Aji Alese following the injury suffered by the defender during the game against Stoke City in the FA Cup on Saturday after the defender was taken off with a knee injury.

Alese was stretchered off in the second half of the third-round clash after going down holding his knee in the 58th minute. The former West Ham man started at left-back instead of Dennis Cirkin for the clash but was replaced by Zak Johnson after suffering the issue.

Speaking after the game, Le Bris said: “Probably, we'll see tomorrow morning for the diagnosis but it looks serious. It's always a shame for a player, for a team-mate, because a serious injury for their health and their career is still difficult. It's difficult for him especially, it's difficult for the group because it's important for us. At the same time, we'll have good support for him for the next weeks.”

Burnley, meanwhile, head into the game on the back of their FA Cup third round win against Reading. Boss Scott Parker said: “I thought the way we applied ourselves was first class given we made 11 changes, a couple of full debuts, players coming into the team who have probably not had a lot of football. “I thought we started the game electric, we had a real intensity about us. Obviously they get the equaliser, a bit of a mistake from us, but then we had the other gear to go and win the game.

“We carved open a lot of chances early on in the first 15 minutes, but we probably didn’t hit the target enough. We had some very good chances from some very, very good play. But we didn't manage to hit the target. They come back into the game in certain moments, but I thought overall we deserved that goal and went on to win comfortably in the end.”