LAMINE KONE has been withdrawn from international duty with the Ivory Coast in order to have the best possible opportunity of being fit for Sunderland’s trip to Watford.

Kone missed the Black Cats’ weekend draw with Burnley after injuring his knee in training on Thursday, although David Moyes revealed a scan had not revealed any significant damage.

Nevertheless, the Sunderland boss does not want to take any chances with arguably his best defender, and Kone will not be involved in Ivory Coast’s forthcoming friendlies with Russia and Senegal.

The 26-year-old will remain on Wearside for treatment, with Moyes hoping he will complete his recovery in time to travel to Vicarage Road for a game Sunderland surely have to win if they are to haul themselves out of the bottom three and remain in the top-flight.

Speaking after the Burnley game, Moyes said: “On Thursday, at the end of training, we were doing some heading practice and he twisted his knee. “We had it scanned and there’s nothing there. It (his recovery time) is more like days or a week.”

In Kone’s absence, Jason Denayer combined with John O’Shea to shut out Burnley and secure only Sunderland’s fifth Premier League clean sheet of the season.

The Black Cats’ centre-halves were rarely troubled by Burnley’s attack, with full-backs Billy Jones and Bryan Oviedo providing further protection in the wide areas.

Oviedo has impressed since moving from Everton in the January transfer window, and the Costa Rica international was pleased with Sunderland’s defensive reliability at the weekend.

The challenge now is to prove as effective at the other end, with Saturday’s failure to score meaning the Black Cats have failed to find the target in six of their last seven league games.

“We did the most difficult thing with the clean sheet, which is very difficult,” said Oviedo. “But we did it well.

“We feel disappointed that we missed our chances though because we created a lot, but we need to continue and score because we won’t win games if we don’t.

“For me, it is the easier part, attacking over defending. I need to help the team create more chances. I think we have very good options, and we made some good moments on the left-hand side, but we need to keep getting better and we have to finish the chances we get, as well as creating more.”

Oviedo linked effectively with Adnan Januzaj on a number of occasions at the weekend, and the pair’s relationship down the left-hand side could be one of the keys to enhancing Sunderland’s attacking threat.

“Playing with Adnan was good,” said Oviedo. “I need to keep communicating more with players because sometimes it is difficult for a new player, to get to know very quickly the other players in the team.

“I need to keep training very hard, and think about the things we can change, and the small thbings we can do to be better.”