DESPERATE David Moyes is banking on Papy Djilobodji being overlooked by his country next month in the hope Sunderland will not be robbed of another key player in the fight for Premier League survival.

Along with a growing list of injuries, which goalkeeper Jordan Pickford joined this week, the Black Cats have got the added headache of Africa Cup of Nations football to cope with early in the New Year.

Lamine Kone will be heading away with Ivory Coast, Didier Ndong with Gabon and Wahbi Khazri is due to be part of the Tunisia party heading to the finals that start on January 14.

Moyes is keeping his fingers crossed there is not a late change of heart from Senegal, who have not included Djilobodji in their get-togethers for two years.

The former Chelsea defender and John O’Shea are the only two players to have operated regularly as centre-backs this season other than Kone, although versatile Jason Denayer will provide an extra option there.

That is why Moyes could do with having Djilobodji to call on himself, knowing his ACN bound players could head away after today’s game, although he hopes to be given permission from the respective to field them against Liverpool on Monday.

Moyes said: “Papy Djilobodji we don’t know for definite. We’ve had call-ups for Lamine Kone, Wahbi Khazri and Didier Ndong but not for Papy yet. If he does go, that will give us major problems at centre-half especially.

“At the moment, we’ve had no call or suggestion he will be getting a call-up but we can’t say for certain. The Africa Nations Cup hits us hard on top of the injury problems we currently have and I have spoken to Ellis Short (Sunderland owner) about that.”

Sunderland paid £8m for Djilobodji in the summer and eyebrows were raised at the fee, given he had only been used as a substitute once by Chelsea after a £2.7m switch from Nantes in the previous transfer window.

The 28-year-old made a number of errors in his early outings and it has only been during Sunderland’s recent run of four wins from seven games that supporters have seen more consistent and confident displays for the 90 minutes.

“What do you get for £8m nowadays? Not much, I’m afraid in the championship,” said Moyes. “But I think the boy has needed time as well, as players do.

“I don’t think he had much Premier League experience, Didier Ndong had no Premier League experience and even the likes of Paddy McNair and Lynden Gooch, very little.

“That’s where really we’ve needed the Jan Kirchhoffs and Lee Cattermoles of this world, even Fabio Borini, who was out for months after getting injured at Southampton.”

Moyes has been told there is very little room for manoeuvre on the transfer front when the window opens, even though his small squad has been rocked by injuries and call-ups too.

But he hopes Short – who is still looking to sell the club because of unsustainable debts – will look on the situation favourably if the right players at knockdown prices become available.

Moyes said: “Ellis has said, if there’s something out there, that we think we have to do, we will look at it. But I don’t think we will be looking at spending bundles of cash, I think if there’s anything which would fit in, we would look at it.

“If there’s something out there, we will try to get it but obviously we have to work in the constraints of the Fair Play rules.

“I don’t think we would look at selling at the moment. You never say never, because each player has his price but at the moment - there will be players we might sell, players we won’t sell - but we certainly aren’t looking at offloading players right now.”

The frustrating thing from Moyes’ point of view is that Sunderland are losing more players at a time when things have improved dramatically. They have put themselves in with a fighting chance of survival ahead of today’s trip to Burnley, but facing changes to the back four and the absence of Pickford could be pivotal.

Moyes said: “I think defensively we have done much better - Lamine Kone and Papy Djilobodji in particular - against Chelsea and then a clean sheet against Watford.

“I think in the main we’ve done pretty good defensively generally - the Man United game we had a bad spell and one of their goals was offside - but generally I think we’ve done well recently.

“Jason Denayer has done well for someone who wouldn’t naturally be seen as a midfield player, he’d be seen as a centre-back. We’ve played him there though because of a lack of numbers in that position, we’ve had no choice really. What he’s got is a bit of pace and athleticism which is giving us something, including strength that we were lacking a little bit.”