SUNDERLAND may well be counting the cost of Dan Ballard’s injury with the defender off to hospital to assess the damage on what looked like an ankle problem.

Ballard was forced off within ten minutes into their 2-2 draw with Queens Park Rangers after Albert Adomah innocuously trodded on his ankle from a late challenge.

The defender looked to be in some discomfort as he was carried off the Stadium of Light turf by two medical personnel from the Black Cats physio team. "It's a massive blow," the Sunderland head coach Alex Neil said.

"Dan is a key player, we've spent money on him to improve the squad. We've lost him, and it just shows where we are. We're light.

"We've lost a signing we've brought in, if you look at the squad today we've only had two starters from who we signed in the summer, and now we've lost one of them.”

After being quizzed on the severity of the injury, Neil added: "It doesn't look good for Dan. He's gone away to hospital and we'll see how he is from there."

The potential injury leaves Sunderland light in numbers in an already thin squad with Ballard being one of four signings the club have made this summer.

Neil’s change saw Luke O’Nien come on and slot into a back three taking Ballard’s role on the right side of defence. Neil had the option of putting natural defender Bailey Wright on the pitch but explained his decision to pick O’Nien instead of the Australian. “It's really, really straightforward," Neil added.

"We played a back three and they played a very, very narrow front three. That means it is man for man. The simple fact is Bailey's strengths and Danny's strengths are being in the centre of that, organising and allowing the lads either side who are really mobile to get out and defend 1-v-1.

"So Aji is left-footed, he comes on if it is Dennis who is injured. On the right side my only option is Luke, in terms of being comfortable in terms of defending out in those areas. If I'm changing the man in the middle, Bailey comes on."