Sunderland confirm Johnson woe

Advocaat said that Johnson would “go to the hospital for a scan” on Wednesday night so that the club could learn “exactly what is wrong” with his shoulder.

Manager Dick Advocaat – who this week bemoaned Sunderland’s lack of activity in the transfer market – expects Johnson to spend around two months on the sidelines.

Sunderland winger Adam Johnson has been ruled out for at least eight weeks with a shoulder injury, the club have announced.

There is every chance that Brown could make a decent number of appearances this season even in his current capacity given possible injuries and suspensions that may arise, but it will be interesting to see in the coming weeks as to whether Brown is entirely happy with the situation.

The Black Cats head coach used summer signings Younes Kaboul and Sebastian Coates as his first-choice centre-back duo in the opening-day 4-2 defeat to Leicester on Saturday but confirmed experienced defender Brown was fit and available.

The England worldwide is due to face trial for child sex charges at Bradford Crown Court on February 10 next year.

Advocaat blasted his players after the match, saying: “We have to learn a lot from this”.

“If you’re looking for positives, it’s that both strikers scored a goal, but I thought that was no sharpness and the speed of the game was very slow, when the other team had the ball they were much quicker”.