SUNDERLAND have suffered a new coronavirus scare ahead of their weekend game with Bristol Rovers.

Two unnamed members of the Black Cats’ senior playing and coaching group tested positive for Covid at the start of the week – one is a player who has not been lining up in the starting side recently – and the entire squad were forced to have a new series of tests.

Thankfully, they have come back negative, and Johnson is confident the minor outbreak will not affect his side when they travel to the Memorial Ground to face a Joey Barton-led Bristol Rovers tomorrow.

Sunderland head coach Lee Johnson said: “We had a bit of a Covid situation with one of our members, we won’t reveal who at the moment.

“The boys had to be tested, which meant they had an extra day where they couldn’t come in, even though they worked at home, physically.

“All is well on the Covid front, and we should be all right going into tomorrow.

“Since the two cases, everybody has returned back negative, which is good. One was from a player that hasn’t been in the squad a lot recently and has been injured.

“We had a good training game against Gateshead during the week, which was good, and then we’ve just been trying to get the preparation right for the weekend.”