Sam Allardyce allays John O’Shea play-off fears

Sunderland 3 Newcastle 0: John O’Shea was watching from the sidelines yesterday as Sunderland scored the goals that secured their first Premier League win of the season and is now a concern ahead of the Ireland’s Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

O’Shea is suspended for the first leg, but the prospect of him featuring in the November 16 second leg looked slim when he limped off in the 37th minute.

But Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce afterwards allayed fears that O’Shea’s injury absence could be a long one.