Teenager Callum Doyle in danger of 'burnout' admits Sunderland boss Alex Neil

Callum Doyle is in danger of 'burnout' in his first season of senior football, admits Sunderland boss Alex Neil.

The Black Cats' new boss has inherited a huge problem with a group of young players - which includes on-loan Manchester City defender Doyle, midfielder Dan Neil, and left-back Dennis Cirkin - who have been mainstays of the side in the first half of the season but visibly have run out of steam over the last month or so.

Yet they have had to continue playing because seniors such as Luke O'Nien, Aiden McGeady, and Nathan Broadhead are out injured, while several of the club's January recruits such as Jermain Defoe, Jack Clarke, and Patrick Roberts arrived having barely played all season.

And it is that perfect storm that has led to Sunderland's catastrophic drop-off in form, with the club's season descending from an automatic promotion challenge at the turn of the year to what is now a battle for a play-off place.

Sunderland have won just one of their ten games since New Year, and they face a tough test this afternoon when they travel to second-placed Wigan Athletic, with Neil looking for his first win since taking charge, with his first three games having ended in two draws and a defeat.

Of Doyle, Neil said: "The kid is 18, he's played a hell of a lot of games, and he has huge potential as a player.

"But if you keep playing him and playing him and playing him, as has happened, the difficulty you are going to find is that at some point, he is going to burn himself out in his first season at this level.

"Unfortunately for Callum, that is the difficulty we are trying to overcome at the moment.

"Looking at Callum and then Arbenit Xhemajlli is a really good example - you go from one player who has played far too much