Black Cats Bardsley out for season

Sunderland defender Phil Bardsley is out of tomorrow’s crucial Barclays Premier League clash with Middlesbrough as he prepares to undergo knee surgery.

Bardsley will have a cartilage operation on Monday which will mean he will not play again this season.

Jonny Evans is rated at only 50-50 with a hamstring strain, while Dwight Yorke (knee) remains a doubt and Dickson Etuhu is out for the remaining weeks of the campaign after already undergoing knee surgery.

Provisional squad: Gordon, Fulop, Collins, McShane, Nosworthy, Evans, Higginbotham, Harte, Whitehead, Reid, Leadbitter, Edwards, Miller, Richardson, Wallace, O’Donovan, Jones, Waghorn, Murphy, Stokes, Chopra, Prica.