Etuhu missing for Black Cats

Sunderland boss Roy Keane will be without suspended midfielder Dickson Etuhu for tomorrow’s Barclays Premier League clash with Blackburn.

The £1.5m signing is banned after picking up his fifth booking of the season at Middlesbrough last weekend.

Defender Nyron Nosworthy is rated at 50-50 with a knee problem, although Russell Anderson (calf) hopes to return, but Andy Cole (calf), Carlos Edwards (hamstring), Kieran Richardson (back), and Dean Whitehead and Stanislav Varga (both knee) are all out.

Provisional squad: Gordon, Ward, Nosworthy, Halford, Kay, McShane, Anderson, Higginbotham, Collins, Harte, Wallace, Yorke, Miller, Leadbitter, Chopra, Jones, Stokes, Murphy, Connolly, O’Donovan.