DUNCAN WATMORE has been rocked by another serious injury blow and is set miss the rest of the season with a second cruciate ligament injury to the same knee.

The 23-year-old is to undergo surgery later this week and it comes just six matches after he made his comeback from the initial problem.

Watmore had been out for ten months with that and now he is braced for another lengthy spell on the sidelines after limping out of Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Millwall on Saturday.

Chris Coleman, who was only paraded as the club's new manager on Monday, will now be unable to call on one of Sunderland’s brightest talents as he looks to lift the club off the foot of the Championship.

Coleman said: “Duncan is the one that we are all looking at, waiting to find out, which is a worrying one.

“We have to get the clinical results to find out exactly what he has done. We haven't got those yet, so everybody is looking at it and suspecting, but we don't know yet.

“Of course we are worried because of what happened before, but until we get a definite we can't really say what is what.”

It is the same knee which Watmore suffered the initial damage to last December and now the fears are that it could take him just as long to recover from this latest blow.

Sunderland play Aston Villa at Villa Park tonight when Coleman will take charge of his first game as manager.