ANTHONY REVEILLERE and Emanuele Giaccherini have both been ruled out of Sunderland’s FA Cup fifth-round tie with Bradford City this weekend, but Gus Poyet is hoping Lee Cattermole makes an eagerly-awaited return to training next week.

Reveillere pulled up with a hamstring problem in Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat with QPR, and will not be risked at Valley Parade on Sunday. In his absence, Santiago Vergini is likely to start at right-back, with Wes Brown partnering John O’Shea at centre-half.

Giaccherini and Cattermole will also be absent as Sunderland look to book a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals for the second season in succession, but the latter should be back on the training ground next week after shaking off a combination of knee and groin problems.

Jack Rodwell will train tomorrow and should have a chance of lining up against Bradford.

Poyet said: “Anthony has a problem at the bottom of his hamstring, although I don’t think it is too bad. He should be back in training in the middle of next week, and we are hoping he will be back for West Brom. We’re talking about a week or so. It was very tight (in the game against QPR) and he came very close to pulling it.

“Giaccherini has no chance for the weekend. On top of the injury he has, he’s also been ill for the last couple of games. That has prevented him from training.

“Lee won’t make the weekend, but he should be back in training on Tuesday. We are hoping that he comes back okay.”

As well as taking on a Bradford side that accounted for Premier League leaders Chelsea in the fourth round, Sunderland will also have to contend with a Valley Parade playing surface that is one of the worst in the country.

Poyet has adapted his players’ training routine this week in order to prepare them for a rutted pitch that will make it extremely hard to pass the ball along the floor, and having become embroiled in a series of passionate discussions about Sunderland’s playing style in recent weeks, the Uruguayan accepts this will not be a weekend for fretting about aesthetic niceties.

He said: “To be honest, I don’t think we are going to be able to play football this weekend. We are looking for a result, and we want to be in the next round somehow.

“It is not about how, it is about being in the next round because you can be in the right position defensively, covering a team-mate, expecting the ball to bounce in front of you naturally, but the ball can bounce anywhere because of the pitch.

“Should you be in the right position or the wrong position? When luck becomes such a big part of the game, I’m just looking for a result.”