Key Sunderland star ruled out of Leicester City clash

Sunderland’s Jack Clarke will be out for up to six weeks due to an ankle injury, ruling him out of a showdown with the title hopefuls Leicester City.

Clarke, the Black Cats’ leading scorer this season with 15 goals in the Sky Bet Championship, damaged ligaments in the recent loss at Birmingham City and missed last Saturday’s home defeat to Swansea.

This will benefit the Foxes, who have dropped their past two Championship games, since he will now miss Tuesday, March 5’s matchup with Leicester City at the Stadium of Light.

The Foxes were robbed at Leeds in their last league game, so their journey to Wearside could be difficult. They defeated Bournemouth in the FA Cup on Tuesday night.

Sunderland said on their official website: “Further assessments of the injury have now been completed, with the winger expected to be out of action for up to six weeks.

“Clarke will now undergo a period of rehabilitation before an anticipated return to training in April.”

The 23-year-old is in his third season at Sunderland after his initial loan spell from Tottenham was made permanent in July 2022.

He joined Tottenham in a reported £10million deal from Leeds in 2019 and has also had temporary stays at QPR and Stoke.

The Foxes play QPR at the King Power stadium on Saturday, opponents whose status might be lowly but who have won three of their last five, including their two most recent.

Then it will be off to Sunderland where Enzo Maresca’s side will hope to repeat the 1-0 home win against the same opponents which came in October. While the Foxes remain top, the Blacks Cats will have interim head coach Mike Dodds in charge having parted ways with Michael Beale. They currently sit tenth, eight points outside the play-offs.