Nosworthy ruled out for five weeks

Jan 19 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

RICKY Sbragia will step up his urgent attempts to strengthen Sunderland’s ailing back four this week after Nyron Nosworthy was ruled out for five weeks with a torn hamstring.

Sbragia hopes to have added at least one new defender by the time Fulham visit the Stadium of Light in a crucial game for Sunderland, and he may now look to add a second new player after the bad news on Nosworthy.

The Black Cats were linked with West Ham defender James Collins yesterday and retain an interest in his Hammers colleague Calum Davenport – while Sbragia will chase up two bids lodged on his behalf last week as he looks to find a short-term replacement for Nosworthy.

The defender was hurt as Sunderland tried to defend Aston Villa’s second goal in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat and the initial verdict is not good for the Black Cats boss, who had already recalled Paul McShane to cope with a defensive injury crisis.

Danny Collins was also taken off with blurred vision after a clash of heads but, despite his concussion, he should be back in time for the visit of Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup next weekend.

Those injuries cast a long shadow over a depressing day for the Black Cats, with Sbragia admitting that Sunderland had only themselves to blame for losing to the 10 men of Villa. Referee Mike Dean made some poor decisions that provoked the ire of the home crowd, but Sbragia was not ducking responsibility.

“Nyron is going to be out for four to five weeks with a hamstring – he might have torn it. We knew we needed a defender anyway, but we’ll have to do it

quicker now. It becomes a bit more urgent,” Sbragia said. “It’s going to have to be quick this week. I think Danny might be okay for Saturday, but the following game against Fulham is, in my thoughts at present, a bigger game.

“People might talk about the (referee’s) decisions but we’ve got to abide by them. We might not be happy with it, but he’s given it.

“The second might have been offside, but I don’t think it was. The initial foul might be outside of the box and things like that went against us, but we didn’t defend the two goals well.

“I can’t be critical of the referee, but I can be critical of defenders. We didn’t defend it well and I thought we were poor.”

With Nosworthy (pictured right) out, Sbragia is set to lean on McShane, who endured a difficult return to Sunderland. He gave away the penalty that led to Villa’s winner and was subsequently jeered by some of the home supporters – but Sbragia felt that was unfair.

“Paul gives his all and I can’t ask for any more. He’s been playing at right-back and maybe in hindsight I should have maybe shoved him over to right-back and put Pascal in at centre-half, but he was confident enough to play there.

“He got caught for the goal, obviously, but so did Anton – he’s not covered him, he’s been lazy, the player has been slightly ahead of him and I was disappointed with that.

“That sort of crowd reaction happens, but he’s big enough to deal with it and he has to take that. It could happen at any ground. With Paul, he gives me his all, and as long as he gives us everything he can give us, that’s all I can ask for. We’ll start again tomorrow. We’ve got the game on Saturday and we’ll try to muddle through that.” Meanwhile, Sbragia does not feel that Kenwyne Jones’ subdued performance on Saturday was because of the speculation surrounding his future.

“I talked to him the other day and he seemed quite happy. What he has to do is try to put it to the back of his mind and concentrate on playing for Sunderland,” he said.

“I thought he tried hard on Saturday, he gave us his all. But we didn’t gel too well up front, to be honest, and we know that’s a problem. But I don’t think that’s because of anything that’s gone on with Spurs.”