ALEX NEIL admits Nathan Broadhead is a major doubt ahead of Sunderland’s play-off semi-final with Sheffield Wednesday – and revealed he brought off Ross Stewart at Morecambe this afternoon because he did not want to be going into Friday’s first leg without a single centre-forward.

Broadhead scored Sunderland’s winner as they claimed a 1-0 victory at the Mazuma Stadium to secure a fifth-place finish in the final League One table, but the Everton loanee was forced off midway through the first half with what appeared to be a muscular problem.

Neil does not think the striker has suffered a recurrence of the issue that was troubling him in the build-up to the game and meant he almost had to miss Tuesday’s draw with Rotherham, but he is clearly worried about the extent of the latest injury setback.

The Sunderland boss said: “It's a completely different area I believe. But the worry we've got now is we've finished the game with no centre-forward on the pitch.

“That's always a worry. I brought Stewart off because I knew the scores elsewhere. He’s literally (our only striker)…I don't need to say anything else, do I?”

Neil was delighted to see his side sign off for the regular season with a victory, even if the Black Cats were far from their free-flowing best on an afternoon when both sides ended up getting what they needed.

Sunderland spent the whole of the second half safe in the knowledge that they were staying in the top six, while Morecambe knew they would not be going down because of results elsewhere.

As a result, the Black Cats were never really threatened as they extended their unbeaten run to an impressive 13 matches.

Neil said: “I’m really pleased with what the players have done, I think we’ve done really well. I think that's one in 15 that we’ve lost - and that one still bugs me by the way.

“We’ve cleared the first hurdle, we’re in the play-offs, but now there’s more work to do.

“It was a tough game, scrappy in parts. Our goal was excellent and I thought our transitions, we should have made better use of, but it’s understandable when you consider what's at stake, they are fighting for their lives as well.

“The simple fact is we got the job done, and really I thought we did it with comfort. I don't think Patto (Anthony Patterson) has had a save to make in the end.

“If you look at their home record, their goal average is minus one. Away from home it's minus 29, so that shows that this was going to be a difficult game. They've beaten Oxford here, they've drawn with Ipswich and Bolton.

“They make it difficult for teams here so it is a good win for us. We'll rest up tomorrow and then we'll get started (preparing for Sheffield Wednesday).”