Sunderland dealt twin injury blow

Richardson (left) and Cattermole have added to Sunderland’s injury troubles

Sunderland will be without Kieran Richardson and Lee Cattermole for the final three games of the season.

Richardson, 26, has a stress fracture in his left leg and fellow midfielder Cattermole, 23, has a back injury.

They will both miss Premier League matches against Bolton, Wolves and West Ham, with Richardson’s injury the more worrying.

But Black Cats manager Steve Bruce said: “We hope he Richardson is going to be joining in pre-season.”

Richardson’s last outing came when he was substituted in the 3-2 defeat by West Brom and he has since been sidelined for three games.

“We X-rayed him after the game against West Brom and then subsequently scanned him two or three days later,” explained Bruce.

“The scans and the X-rays revealed nothing at all apart from a badly bruised bone.

“Unfortunately, what the medical people are telling me is that they stress fractures can appear within 10 days to three weeks.

“Consequently, we re-scanned him on Thursday when we detected that unfortunately, the boy has got a stress fracture and will miss the rest of the season.”