Sunderland make the trip to Queens Park Rangers in the Championship this weekend, but they will have to get by without an “amazing” player in west London.
Sunderland prepare for trip to QPR
The Blacks Cat head into another weekend of domestic action sitting top of the league by five points, having enjoyed a fantastic start to life under new manager Regis Le Bris.
On Saturday afternoon, Sunderland head to a QPR side currently 23rd in the table, having only once in the Championship in 2024/25. For that reason, another victory is to be expected for Le Bris’ men, but they must not take their opponents lightly.
While things are going extremely well under Le Bris currently, that’s not to say that everything is going their way, with a number of important players absent at different times during the campaign.
They include the likes of goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, centre-back Dan Ballard and forward Eliezer Mayenda have all struggled with injuries recently, so it is even more impressive that Sunderland are winning as relentlessly as they are. Now, a key fitness update has emerged ahead of their trip to west London on Saturday.
Sunderland dealt injury blow before QPR
Taking to X, Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie confirmed that Sunderland goalkeeper Patterson is still “missing” for the trip to QPR as he has yet to train this week, though there is hope he could play in the next fixture against Preston.
Patterson is such an important player for the Black Cats, so once again having him unavailable for their latest Championship assignment is far from ideal. The 24-year-old had started all 11 of Sunderland’s league games this season until he was absent for the 2-0 win at home to Oxford United last Saturday, with Simon Moore coming in and keeping a clean sheet.
Patterson’s return will hopefully not be far away, however, considering how key he is to his side’s promotion hopes this season, with Tony Mowbray once saying of him: “The goalkeeper…listen, he’s a top goalkeeper. I’ve been in football more than 40 years, and this kid is a very talented boy who has an amazing temperament.
“Nothing fazes him; he’s very calm about everything; he’s not bouncing all over the place and losing the plot. He’s a very calm goalie who makes great saves.”
With or without Patterson in the team, though, Sunderland should be expected to be too strong for QPR this weekend, considering there are 22 places between them in the table, with the Black Cats playing with such a huge amount of confidence right now.
These are the games they have to win if they are to have genuine automatic promotion aspirations in the coming months, as they look to put more pressure on the surrounding teams.
