Tony Mowbray provides Ross Stewart update as he misses big Sunderland win | OneFootball

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray insists he was adopting a cautious approach with Ross Stewart after the striker missed the big win over Millwall.

The Scotsman hasn’t featured since the end of August but there was a hope that he would be involved against the Lions after Stewart was pictured in training during the week.

Therefore, it was a surprise when the player wasn’t in the squad for the 3-0 success over the Londoners at the Stadium of Light.

Naturally, that caused some concern as to whether Stewart has had a setback but Mowbray told Chronicle Live that it’s simply the case of easing the former Ross County man back into action after such a lengthy lay-off.

“What matters is that my relationship with Ross and my relationship with the medical department where trust is a factor.

“The medical department felt it was a dangerous thing, so if I had been sitting here and Ross had started or come off the bench and then had to go off because he was limping, people would be saying that I’d got it wrong and shouldn’t have risked it. Ross can train for a whole week, he’s got nine days now before the West Brom game and he will have plenty of training.”

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Anton Ferdinand

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The verdict

This seems like a very sensible decision from Mowbray and he’s made the call with the long-term in mind.

Of course, had Sunderland lost today then there might be a lot more questioning the call but you can say now that it’s worked out very well as he hasn’t risked the striker and the team got the points.

As he says now, there’s a big gap to the West Brom game and you would expect Stewart to play some part as the Black Cats look to build on this impressive win.