Sunderland are set to be without Jack Clarke for the visit of Swansea City to the Stadium of Light but who will Mike Dodds select as his replacement?
Dodds takes interim charge for a second time this season following Michael Beale's departure from the club and faces a number of selection headaches following news of Clarke's injury setback being confirmed.
The 23-year-old winger suffered a slight ankle injury in the defeat at Birmingham City when opening the scoring with his 15th goal of the season for Sunderland but looks likely to miss out against Swansea having not trained this week.
It will bring an end to Clarke's 100 per cent record of starting games in the Championship for Sunderland this season and leaves a huge gap to fill in the starting line-up.
Clarke will be joined by defender Dan Ballard who will also miss out at the Stadium of Light after picking up his tenth yellow card of the season in last week's defeat at St. Andrew's.
Here is We Are Sunderland's predicted line-up for the weekend:
READ MORE: Sunderland confirm injury to key winger Jack Clarke
Predicted XI
It was the last thing Sunderland and Mike Dodds needed following Michael Beale's exit and the position the club find themselves in with regards to their play-off chase, but Jack Clarke's injury setback is a huge blow.
Dodds was keen to play down the severity of Clarke's injury - the 23-year-old rolling his ankle in the recent defeat at Birmingham City - in the hope he may return for selection ahead of next weekend's trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City, but it's a problem they must overcome against Swansea City this weekend.
Clarke has been an ever-present this season, starting all 33 Championship games, and has made 19 goal contributions. Quite simply, he is irreplaceable for Sunderland this season. And yet Dodds is going to have to find away to navigate Clarke's absence - something he admitted he was relatively excited by.
"Jack Clarke is one of the best wingers in the league. If you take Jack Clarke out of any of the teams in the league he’s a miss," said Dodds.
"On the flipside, I’m also a little bit excited around tweaking and changing one or two things. I’m excited around what things can we move around within the group? The proof will, ultimately, be in the pudding, won’t it? I’m sure at five o’clock on Saturday I’m going to be asked two different types of questions."
Romaine Mundle's encouraging first half display on his full-debut last weekend stands him in good stead to start from the left in place of Clarke with Abdoullah Ba then to operate from the right as we have seen in recent weeks under Beale.
READ MORE: Is Romaine Mundle Sunderland's successor to Jack Clarke
There could also be scope to field Nazariy Rusyn from one of the wider areas - particularly after Beale had hinted the Ukrainian is perhaps more suited to a wide role than being played through the middle as an out-and-out striker.
During his three games in charge earlier in the season following Tony Mowbray's exit, Dodds opted against starting with one of the club's four summer signings up front, with Jobe Bellingham one of those favoured to lead the line as such.
That could be something Dodds will consider here, but given Rusyn and Mason Burstow have scored in recent weeks there is a case to be made that Dodds will keep faith in one of those two to lead the line.
Elsewhere, Jenson Seelt looks locked in to make his first start since the win over Stoke City with Dan Ballard suspended. Ballard was shown his tenth yellow card of the season last weekend and will miss the visit of Swansea as well as the trip to Norwich next weekend. It means Seelt will get a start in his more natural centre-back role - the problem for Dodds coming next weekend should Luke O'Nien pick up his tenth yellow card against Swansea.
Dodds revealed Leo Hjelde is fit and looks set to continue at full-back - the Norwegian defender has started all four games following his move from Leeds United last month.
It will be interesting to see how Dodds utilises Chris Rigg over the remaining 13 games of the season. Had Clarke not been missing there may have been scope for the teenager to start here against Swansea should Jobe move into a more advanced role.
As it is, We Are Sunderland are predicting three changes for the meeting with Swansea:
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