SUNDERLAND should be able to call on matchwinner Jermain Defoe for Saturday’s Premier League encounter against Stoke City – but Sam Allardyce is considering tweaking the 3-5-2 formation that helped the Black Cats to victory at Crystal Palace on Monday.

Defoe was the only goalscorer in Sunderland’s win at Selhurst Park, but limped off four minutes from time with an ankle injury.

The former Tottenham striker is expected to be available on Saturday, and Allardyce will have all of his squad except for the suspended Billy Jones to call upon. He could name an unchanged team, but move away from the 3-5-2 formation.

Allardyce said in his pre-match press conference: "It's week by week, game by game. The most important thing for us is it looks like Jermain is going to be fit and having the full squad fit is always extremely important to your team and your selection process, having the availability of players to maybe adjust what you do or tweak what you do to try to win the next game.

"But at the moment, we have just got to try to get prepared to beat Stoke City the best way we can. We have been looking at that for the last two days visually and it's up to me today and then tomorrow to select the team to try to play against Stoke City and try to get another victory if we can."

There were fears that Defoe had injured his ankle ligaments, but Allardyce has reported the outlook was a lot brighter on Thursday.

He said: "It's not as bad as first feared. We think he has every chance of being available for Saturday's game.

"It looked like it was going to be probably strained ankle ligaments, but to be fair, I saw Jermain the day after and he was walking without any support, so we really hope he's going to be okay."

Fabio Borini is available for selection having made a full recovery from the ankle injury that has seen him feature for just 15 minutes since the end of October.