LEE BURGE could be given a run-out for Sunderland tomorrow in the FA Cup – even though doubts over his fitness have contributed to the postponement of next week’s trip to Bristol Rovers.

The Black Cats goalkeeper is being monitored to see if he can make his comeback in the first round tie with Gillingham at the Stadium of Light in a bid to get him back to full fitness.

Burge had to be replaced at half-time during the defeat at Shrewsbury on October 26 because of the muscle injury and it has still caused issues when he has kicked in training.

Those worries have led to manager Phil Parkinson deciding to postpone the trip to Bristol Rovers following the Scotland call-up to Jon McLaughlin, as well as Northern Ireland calls for Conor McLaughlin and Tom Flanagan.

But Burge could make a surprise appearance against Gillingham after Parkinson delivered the squad’s injury update.

He said: “Denver Hume has got a virus, so he’s a doubt, so we’ll just wait to see how he is - probably similar to what Duncan Watmore had last week, and we’ll just see how he is close to the kick-off.

“Lynden Gooch has been out running today, so touch wood that’s him making progress. Charlie Wyke has made good progress the last couple of days, the swelling has gone out of his ankle - Brandy’s a lot happier so hopefully we’ll get him going next week in terms of out on the grass running. Elliot Embleton is another three months away, so he’s a long-term injury.

“Lee Burge has trained some of the week, and we’ll assess him tomorrow and see how he’s got through today - he did feel it a little bit at the end of the session, so we’ll just make a decision whether we’re going to put him in the squad tomorrow.”

Speaking specifically on the postponement, Parkinson said: “It was purely what we’ve been saying with the injuries we’ve got, the three internationals called up, Burgey - we’re not quite sure how that muscle’s going to react, so I think it was quite a simple decision really.

"As much as we don’t want a fixture pile-up, equally we didn’t want to go into a game with a weakened team. I think it gives us the opportunity to get those injured players closer to being fit.”

Parkinson wants to see Sunderland progress in the FA Cup and turn in an improved display following Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Leicester City’s Under-21s at the Stadium of Light in the EFL Trophy.

“We’ve moved on quickly to kind of reset our performance levels, and done a bit of video work with the lads this morning about what we need to do,” he said.

“It’s always frustrating to lose a game but I think a lot of it was that I picked a team which maybe didn’t have the right balance in it to give everybody a game - the balance in the team wasn’t right.

“Of course, individuals can do more within that, but sometimes I’m at the stage where I need to look at as many players as quickly as possible, and the structure of the team wasn’t quite what I would normally like.”