CHRIS Hughton issued positive news on the injury front on Thursday afternoon when he confirmed that both Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Robert Snodgrass will be part of the squad for Saturday’s trip to Sunderland.

Both have been missing with toe muscle and knee injuries respectively but will travel to Wearside with the chance of making their return against Gus Poyet’s strugglers.

“They are both back in the squad, which is good news. Ricky was very much touch and go last week, but we felt he hadn’t done enough training in the days leading up to that match,” he said

“Robert has come through a full-week’s training and is feeling good, so both he and Ricky are both in contention for Saturday’s game.”

City kick-off a run of five matches in 15 days over the Festive period and Hughton says such a busy schedule makes it difficult to plan for each individual game.

“I don’t think you can. With the amount of games that we have, you have to take each one at a time,” he added when speaking at his pre-match press conference at Colney Training Centre.

“We play two games in three days over that Christmas period, so it’s difficult to plan for a second game until you know what happened in the first game.

“It is a lot of games in a short period of time, and you need to make sure your team is focussed. Recovery is going to be a big part of our preparation, but it’s the same for every team.”

The Black Cats prop up the Premier League table and are guaranteed to be there come Boxing Day, but City’s boss isn’t underestimating their challenge after their saw off Chelsea in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night.

“It’s as big a challenge as any other game we play. They are on the back of a very good win midweek, albeit not in the league, so they’ll be buoyed by that, but that’s them.

“We are also in decent form ourselves, and we’re on the back of a very good away win at West Brom and I thought a good second half performance against Swansea City.

“We’re looking hopefully for that form to continue.”

DOUBLE DELIGHT FOR HUGHTON

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