JACK ROSS admits Sunderland’s lack of action this weekend will check their momentum, but the Black Cats boss insists his side would have been at a massive disadvantage if they played their scheduled game.

The Black Cats were due to host Blackpool at the Stadium of Light this afternoon, but the game was called off because of the club’s international call-ups.

Goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin is part of the Scotland squad that will take on Portugal in a friendly tomorrow, after suffering a Nations League defeat in Israel on Thursday night, while Tom Flanagan was a member of the Northern Ireland squad that took on Austria last night.

Bali Mumba and Benji Kimpioka are away with their age-group teams, for England and Sweden respectively, and while Bryan Oviedo would have been unavailable for League One duty as he is suspended, he left Wearside at the start of the week to represent Costa Rica.

Sunderland’s game is the only League One fixture not to be taking place today, and the Black Cats will find themselves seven points adrift of top spot if league leaders Portsmouth win at AFC Wimbledon.

They will also lose some of the momentum generated by back-to-back wins over Bradford City and Carlisle United, but Ross is adamant it would have been a mistake to play this weekend.

“Probably, with the way the league table is now, we would rather have kept going and tried to build momentum,” said the Sunderland boss. “But there is a balance to it. Where would we have been without our first-choice goalkeeper, who’s been brilliant for us this season?

“Right away, that’s a no-brainer for us. Other players in our squad at Bradford – Bali travels with England, Benji is away with Sweden, and Tom too – so we’d be very stretched squad-wise.

“We train at a very high intensity as well, so this will allow us, after the Checkatrade game, to have time off for everybody. Then, I think we’ll come back with a real freshness in the lead-up to the Shrewsbury game.”

Meanwhile, Sunderland director Juan Sartori has could be combining his role on Wearside with an even more high-profile position next year – president of Uruguay.

Sartori became an investor in Sunderland earlier this summer, offering his support to the club’s new owner, Stewart Donald, and the Uruguayan press claim he is about to formally confirm his candidature for the forthcoming presidential election.

It is claimed that Sartori will launch his campaign on November 20 by putting his name forward as a candidate for the right-wing conservative National Party, the main opposition group in Uruguay.

Primary elections are due to take place next summer, with a full presidential election in October 2019.