Jack Clarke will be able to keep on papering over the Sunderland cracks after Michael Beale confirmed he did not suffer an injury at Birmingham.

Clarke scored his 15^th goal of the season at St Andrews, although he appeared to injure his foot in the process.

The physios attended to the winger on the pitch immediately afterwards, and he left the field at half time carrying his boot, presumably due to swelling.

A strangely lacklustre second-half showing from Clarke followed as Sunderland sank to a 2-1 defeat, but Beale says there is no cause for concern, despite the problem first occurring at Huddersfield on Wednesday.

Asked after the game about a potential injury to Jack Clarke,

Michael Beale

said: “He was fine, he had a little strapping on it.

“He took a knock early in the game on Wednesday when we broke and the lad run across him. We didn’t get anything for it but he got a knock and then caught it again when he scored the goal, just felt it a little bit at half-time.

“We asked him at half-time, we asked him when we were making the subs in the second half, he said he was fine but I don’t think there’s much of an issue there.”

The news on Patrick Roberts and Elliot Embleton wasn’t as positive, though, with Beale confirming they will both be missing for quite some time.

“We won’t see either of them for a while unfortunately,” Beale confirmed. “With Paddy it’s four or five weeks, and with Embo on the scan there was something we didn’t really expect to see which we have.

He’ll probably be the same amount of time as well which is disappointing for both.