Alex Pritchard's injury made two dropped points seem the least of Sunderland's problems

Sunderland's goalless draw at Charlton Athletic was a game of contradictions. On the one hand, the return of Nathan Broadhead after two-and-a-half months on the sidelines, a positive performance - including a first-half display that Alex Neil described as the best football of his five-game tenure - in which Sunderland dominated possession, created a hatful of chances, and in which they denied the Addicks so much as a single shot on target.

On the other, there was also frustration, disappointment, and misery. Frustration at Sunderland's inability to take their chances, disappointment at two dropped points in the race for a play-off place, and the misery of seeing your most influential player hobble out of the action with an injury that could rule him out of all or part of the run-in.

It says a lot about Alex Pritchard's importance to Sunderland that his injury is potentially more significant than the two points dropped at The Valley. On any other day, the fact that Sunderland had collected only a point from a game they should have won at such a crucial point in the season would have been the takeaway.

But it was the sight of Pritchard being helped from the field 15 minutes from time that was the most worrying aspect of the afternoon. Pritchard is Sunderland's best player and arguably the best player in the entire division.

Neil said the midfielder had rolled his ankle and, while he will need a scan to determine the extent of the damage, the head coach admitted it 'did not look good'. With only ten games now remaining, and with Sunderland engaged in a desperate scrap for a play-off place, losing Pritchard for a lengthy period at this point would be a huge blow.

Elliot Embleton and Patrick Roberts are potential