Sunderland are worried about the fitness of Lynden Gooch and Dennis Cirkin ahead of their League One playoff semi-final against Luton Town on Saturday.
Additionally, manager Tony Mowbray fears that Aji Alese and Dan Ballard will not feature in the semi-final.
What's the Sunderland vs Luton team news?
Chronicle Live's James Hunter reports that while Alese is edging closer to an injury return, the semi-final will likely come too early for the 22-year-old defender.
The 6 foot 3 centre-back has been out since early March out due to a thigh injury sustained during a defeat to Stoke City. Alese was previously ruled out for the rest of the season but has since been training with physios, but will not play apart in Sunderland's hopes to reach the playoff final.
Ballard is also likely to be unavailable for the semi-final. He has also been out since March after picking up a hamstring injury while away on international duty with Northern Ireland. There was previous hope that he might feature in the second leg but that now appears remote.
And the Black Cats are now worried about the fitness of Gooch and Cirkin ahead of their League One playoff semi-final against Luton Town on Saturday. Although they haven't trained yet, Gooch and Cirkin will take part in a final session on Saturday – a late fitness test will be done to determine their availability.
The two players are really important for Mowbray. After a brilliant display against Huddersfield, Mowbray singled Cirkin out for individual praise, saying: "Dennis is an aggressive, powerful guy and you just have to keep pushing him to believe in himself. He's undoubtedly got Premier League qualities, he's a powerful unit who can nick goals for you."
Gooch, who Mowbray called a "warrior" would also be a miss if he was unable to pass a fitness test.
What was Tony Mowbray's injury update?
"I think Dan's too far away at this moment to make these games [against Luton]. They come pretty quickly – Saturday-Tuesday – so I don't think Dan Ballard is going to make it.
"Aji has been out there with the physios today, side-footing volleys and running in and out of cones, but he hasn’t kicked a ball for nine weeks. I don’t think [he could play].
"The team have done amazingly well and have just won away to Preston 3-0. I'm not sitting here thinking we desperately need to get these players back in straight away.
"They would help, of course, and it would be great to be able to put a player or two on the bench that would enable us to get them on if we needed to see a game out. But I'm not sure that's going to happen."