Defender Long out with minor knee problem

Kevin Long back in action for the Clarets. Burnley U21s v Blackburn Rovers U21s, Turf Moor, November 9th 2015. Photos: Kelvin Stuttard

The 26-year-old has made only one appearance this season – in the EFL Cup exit at former club Accrington Stanley – with Michael Keane, Ben Mee and James Tarkowski ahead of him in the pecking order.

And Sean Dyche revealed after Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Sunderland that he will be unavailable until around the start of February.

Dyche said: “He’s just had a minor bit of scar tissue on his knee tendon, he’s had that taken out.

“It’s quite a normal thing.”

Asked how long he would be out, Dyche added: “Probably a few weeks, he’s going well.

“It’s a backlog of his injury, the stress that goes through the tendon after the op.

“It was more of a niggle.”

Long suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury on New Year’s Day 2015, but returned last season on loan at Barnsley and then MK Dons.