Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has revealed that he could be without Ricky Alvarez, Emanuele Giaccherini and Sebastian Coates for a month.
The trio suffered injuries during training with the Black Cats and could be sidelined until the middle of November, but Poyet is hopeful that his squad can cope with their absences.
He told the club's official website: "We have got a couple of little problems with Ricky Alvarez and Emanuele Giaccherini especially, plus a little bit with Sebastian Coates.
"We think they are going to be out for around a month or so, so it is going to be around that limit, maybe one of them a little bit longer.
"It is part of that and this is football and the bad side of football is the injuries, so we need to be a good group and a good squad to cope with certain special players getting injured."
Sunderland are currently 13th in the Premier League after seven matches of the season.
Simon Sinclair
