Huge blow: Sunderland dealt yet another setback ahead of Millers, Neil will be gutted - opinion

Sunderland have been dealt a fresh setback ahead of their upcoming League One clash with Rotherham United on Tuesday evening.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference (via Rotherham’s official website), Paul Warne revealed that, despite a number of his first-team squad picking up knocks in the 2-1 victory over Oxford United on Saturday afternoon, he has no fresh injury concerns ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with Sunderland – suggesting he will be able to pick from the same group of players available at the weekend.

Regarding the current state of his squad, the 48-year-old said: “We’ve got no major concerns, you always have a few aches and pains the day after a game, but I don’t think any of that is going to change who is available on Tuesday night. I think we’ll have the same players available to us.”

Considering the importance of picking up all three points against the second-placed Millers on Tuesday evening, the fact that Warne has no fresh injury concerns is undoubtedly news that will have left Alex Neil gutted.

Indeed, Rotherham have been in fantastic form throughout their 2021/22 League One campaign, so far confounding pre-season predictions of a sixth-place finish by occupying one of the automatic promotion spots – with a victory over the Black Cats on Tuesday, coupled with a Wigan Athletic draw or loss at Portsmouth, being enough to see the Millers claim top spot in the division.

This favourable league position has largely been thanks to the efforts of centre-forward Michael Smith – 19 goals and six assists over 43 appearances – goalkeeper Josh Vickers – 12 clean sheets and 3.1 saves per game over 20 outings – central midfielder Daniel Barlaser – nine goals and six assists over 42 fixtures – and centre-back